The History of the Hunger Games
by avenirem
Summary: A chapter for each Hunger Games up until the 74th following the victor for each one. Includes how each of the victors won their games. Disclaimer- I don't own the Hunger Games or any of the characters ON HIATUS
1. 1st Hunger Games - Ichor

1st Hunger Games

Winner: Ichor District 2

After the Uprising, the Capitol wanted revenge for the Districts rebelling so a rash decision was made by the hot headed President to make the districts turn against each other by making their children kill each other. A few Gamemakers were quickly appointed without really being told what to do and a plan for the reaping was quickly scraped together and the idea was announced to the districts. At first the districts laughed it off saying they would never turn against each other but then the Gamemakers brought in the rule of tesserae to make the districts take it seriously. Starving families gladly signed their children of 12-18 up, grateful for the extra food; so the Hunger Games were born. But they still didn't think too much of children fighting to the death- the Capitol was obviously just trying to scare them.

When the reaping came, the districts began to realise that their children would be taken away from them and many refused to go on up once their names were called, clinging to their parents. From then on the children were separated from the adults as to avoid this hesitance of going onto the platform. Meanwhile, the Capitol watched all this with glee, anxious for revenge.

When the tributes arrived in the Capitol they had the Opening Ceremony with only one stylist team for each district. After that they had 3 days to train but it was all kept entirely secret – there were no training scores or interviews at first (see 8th and 11th Games). So after 3 days, the tributes went straight to the arena without the Capitol knowing anything about them; not that the Capitols cared- they just wanted revenge meaning there were no sponsers until the 7th Games.

The arena was a plain meadow with only weapons in the Cornucopia. The tributes had been warned about the landmines so when the gong went off, no one actually moved for fear of being blown up. After a few minutes, a brave girl from district 6 gingerly took a step and realising it was safe, called out to everyone that it was alright; none of the districts had truly understood that the tributes would actually kill each other. When the tributes got to the Cornucopia, they all picked out a weapon of their choice and then all stood around awkwardly. No one knew what to do.

"Well what do we do now?" the girl from district 12 said, addressing all 24 tributes.

"I think we might just have to fight and get it all over with" said the big burly boy from District 1. At the cries of outrage and protest, he just shrugged and said

"Let's face it; we all know we've got to fight but no one wants to be the one to start it."

As the tributes argued, the girl from District 1 silently drew up a bow and targeted Ichor- the boy from District 2. However he spotted it out of the corner of his eye, just managed to get out the way, so instead the boy from District 8, Micah, was hit. The watching districts watched in horror, someone had actually died. Micah was the first casualty of the Games.

The tributes gathered around him but it was obvious he had died instantly. A cannon then went off followed by an announcement saying that a cannon would signify a death. Everyone had forgotten the girl from District 1 until another arrow came whizzing past and hit the girl from District 10. Once again a cannon went off and the other tributes crowded round the girl shouting insults at her.

She shrugged and said

"Someone had to do it and I don't know about the rest of you but I want to go home". The boy from District 10 let out a cry of rage and answered this by sending an axe into the smirking girl's head. A cannon went off instantly. This escalated into a full on battle until four more were dead and it would've gone on until everyone died unless the girl from District 7 hadn't come up with the idea to run away and hide. This was an excellent idea and all the tributes did this until they realised about 5 hours later that there wasn't really anyone to hide, they had no food and the Games would never end like this. Ichor had realised this very early on and had returned to the Cornucopia to see if anyone would come back and slowly over the next few hours they did and he picked them off one by one with his spears until nearly everyone was dead. The remaining tributes had heard the cannons but had no idea who had died until a screen came up in the evening showing headshots of the dead. As night drew in there were 3 tributes left but they were freezing and in the end the other two crawled back to the Cornucopia leaving Ichor to easily defeat them as he had a little shelter from the Cornuncopia.

Ichor became the first victor and demanded a better house and more money resulting in a Victors Village being built in each district. He also requested to help the future tributes from District 2 (at first he actually offered to help all the tributes but the Capitol wouldn't let him). There was a week of mourning in the districts but over the years they quickly learned to just get on with things and try to forget which was difficult as the victor had to go on the Victory Tour halfway between each Hunger Games.

The Capitol had also learned a lot from the Games. They wanted them to be more gruesome and to last longer so for that reason more supplies were added to the Cornucopia next time and more shelter was also given.


	2. 2nd Hunger Games- Topaz

2nd Hunger Games

Winner: Topaz District 1

After the 1st Hunger Games, the districts were left distraught and disbelieving but the Capitol were left wanting more. Therefore it was decided to keep the Hunger Games going and the Quarter Quell's were written by the President so future Presidents would never forget how important the Hunger Games were. But this outraged the districts, who weren't aware there would be more than one Hunger Games yet the reminder of tesserae quickly quietened them as it had been a bad year for the harvest in District 9 and 11.

At the reaping the chosen tributes went up to the platform with fewer protests than last year. One particular protest was from the 12 year old girl from District 3, the first 12 year old there had been in the Games. Her name was Tina and she caused a catastrophe during the 3 days of training when she threw herself off the Training Building to avoid competing in the Games. However she survived with two broken legs and arms that the Capitol could easily fix. But what if she had died? There wouldn't have been a girl tribute from District 3. To avoid tributes ever trying to kill themselves again, the Capitol used forcefields on the Training Building. They also made sure that no tribute would come to harm in training by using professionals from the Capitol that the tributes could train on . The tributes from District 2 were looking particularly confident this year because they were the only tributes with mentors and the only ones who could go in prepared so everyone assumed that one of them would win.

The arena was a forest with the Cornucopia in the clearing. The Gamemakers had learnt from last time and has stocked the Cornucopia full with weapons, food, water and other essential supplies to avoid the tributes starving in the first few days like the 1st Games. Like the first games there was a little hesitation from the tributes when the gong sounded but the tributes from District 2 started the bloodbath by going straight to the Cornucopia and grabbing the best weapons before spreading out to attack. Most of the tributes ran when they saw the District 2 tributes but a few of the stronger ones stayed behind to get their own weapons and the bloodbath continued for nearly 2 hours with 8 casualties. There was only one survivor from the bloodbath – Topaz the boy tribute from District 1. He had killed several tributes including both from District 2. As the rest of the tributes had gone to hide in the forest, Topaz had to go and hunt the rest of them down. It took him 4 days but he was helped as some of the other tributes killed each other off but they all knew the main competition was Topaz as he was the only strong tribute remaining and at 18, also the eldest.

When there were only 2 tributes left, the Capitol went 12 hours without blood as the remaining tribute, the girl from District 7, had hidden herself away with plenty of supplies; when the final fight came though, it was bloody and highly entertaining. Both tributes had several weapons and both of them sustained several injuries in the 4 hour fight that followed. In the end Topaz, who had several fingers missing, slit the girls throat and she died shortly after that. Topaz became a hero and after realising how entertaining the Games could be, the Gamemakers now had the challenge of making each year better than the last.


	3. 3rd Hunger Games- Crystal

3rd Hunger Games

Winner: Crystal District 1

This year the districts were much accepting when the Hunger Games came round again. The Capitol wasn't going to change their minds now- they enjoyed it too much. Districts 1 and 2 were becoming favourites of the Capitol as they had both won and were now being lavished in gifts for it. This is how the betting business started in the Hunger Games as the Capitol was positive the winner this year would be from Districts 1 or 2. The tributes that were reaped from District 1 and 2 knew this and became confident and arrogant. They had mentors to help them and were the only two districts to have won before. When they took their places at the reaping they were cheered and clapped and all four of them were determined to win. The girl from District 1, Crystal, was particularly eager to win as she knew she would go down in history as the first girl to win the Hunger Games.

The tributes went to the 3 days of training as usual but the District 1 tributes did something that never been done before, they worked together and acted like…friends. This was a huge shock to the other tributes. Why would you become friends with someone you were going to kill? Well that's what Crystal and Platinum (the boy from District 1) thought but their mentor from last year Topaz told them that they'd appreciate an ally in the arena because he had to do the whole thing alone and he'd hated it. So Crystal and Platinum became the first tributes to have an ally.

The arena this year was a corn field that stretched for miles and miles. The Cornucopia was again stacked with weapons and food but this year there were lots of reapers as well, a tool used to cut corn that could be a deadly weapon. Lots of the tributes didn't recognise them but the tributes from District 9 did and when the gong went, they rushed straight to the Cornucopia to grab several. Both District 9 tributes could use two at once and had killed several tributes before they'd left their podiums. The girl from District 9 aimed another one at Crystal who was grabbing knives from the Cornucopia and she would've almost certainly died if Platinum hadn't blocked it with his sword. Platinum had just saved Crystal's life and any doubts either of them had had about staying allies in the arena were gone.

After the bloodbath was over both Crystal and Platinum were alive but only one of the District 9 tributes were remaining: Mazie, the girl. For days Crystal and Platinum hunted her down, killing anyone they came across. However the corn was extremely long and easy to hide in and they couldn't find her so had to head back to the Cornucopia to stock up on food.

As they headed back it was growing dark and Crystal lost sight of Platinum. Suddenly a piercing scream cut through the darkness – it sounded like Platinum. By the time Crystal found him, it was too late to save him – he had lost too much blood from a huge gash in his chest. Crystal could see the life leaving his eyes but he managed to utter one word…

"Mazie"

Then a cannon went off.

Crystal headed back to the Cornucopia alone, determined to hunt down Mazie and avenge her friend. It took her another 2 days before the two met and by then they were the only tributes left. In a way, Crystal was pleased that a girl was going to win the Hunger Games, as long as it was her.

Crystal had her knives, Mazie had her reapers. The two were evenly matched and were both experienced killers. Mazie started it by throwing one of her reapers. Crystal dodged and threw a knife but Mazie dodged that. Neither of them would allow the other to come close enough to inflict damage without throwing their weapon. Crystal was beginning to run out of knives so when she dodged the next attack for Mazie she threw all her remaining knives at Mazie, praying one would hit her. They all missed but one that hit Mazie in the heart, killing her instantly. Crystal was the winner of the 3rd Hunger Games but she would've died in the bloodbath if Platinum hadn't saved her. The future tributes saw this and the idea of allies became quite popular in the future.


	4. 4th Hunger Games- Thom

**Authors Note:** Hi I'll try to add new chapters as much as possible but it might take a while. I've got ideas for all of them; I just need to write them up.

4th Hunger Games

Winner: Thom District 4

By now District 1 was beginning to get a reputation among the other districts as being the one to beat. Having won the first one, District 2 had also got a reputation but not as much as District 1. Any remaining hope of the Hunger Games stopping was truly gone by the time the reaping came around this year. Now people just hoped that it wasn't their children that would be picked for the reaping, even in the districts that would eventually have the career tributes, there were no volunteers until the 16th Games. But some people who didn't have anyone to care about anymore started up an illegal betting business within the districts as to who would be picked for the reaping. Not many people would bet but some did in the hope of a little extra money – this was especially popular in Districts 11 and 12 which where the two poorest districts and where a little extra money could go a long way. The reaping was a huge day for everyone, even if you didn't have any family left.

In the 3 days of training, the Gamemakers chose to come and watch the tributes train, something they had never done before. It was a good idea but meant that some tributes didn't learn vital survival skills because they were too busy showing off to the Gamemakers. The tributes this year would need survival skills more than ever before as this year one of the Gamemakers had been promoted to Head Gamemaker and was determined to make his mark on the Games. His name was Augustus Snow. There were no mutts yet but the Head Gamemaker chose to influence something else… the weather.

The arena this year was an ordinary looking valley and the Cornucopia was at the top of one side of the valley. When the gong sounded the tributes had to race up the hill and only several made it in time to grab weapons before they were slaughtered. However as the tributes trying to get up the steep hill were already halfway up, it was too late to run away from the tributes with weapons resulting in the biggest bloodbath yet with 11 dead.

Thom, the boy from District 4, was one of the smart ones and had run away as soon as the gong sounded. He headed for shelter in the leafy undergrowth without stopping to get food or water. It was one of the best ideas anyone had in the 4th Hunger Games as that night there was a torrential storm. Hours worth of rain washed all the food any tributes had collected away and the boy from District 10 was drowned as he tripped and fell face down in a huge puddle. Unable to get up from a twisted ankle he died. Three more tributes had the same fate before the night was over.

After the rain died down, many tributes came out of their shelter to search for food thinking the worst was over. Thom was one of the ones who did come out into the open but only to collect a few berries and a bit of water before retreating back inside. The day passed on without any more rain and the tributes relaxed thinking the worst of the weather was over. But they were wrong.

That night a horrendous gale whipped up and hailstones the size of rocks fell all night long. Quite a few tributes were safe from the storm but the ones who had gone to hunt down the other tributes paid for it and died in agony. The District 1 tributes had been hunting the other tributes and had nearly found Thom who had no weapons but all the weapons in the Cornucopia couldn't protect the two District 1 tributes from the hail and they both died as Thom stood there and watched. The night was filled with cannon's being fired.

After the storm was over many tributes stayed hidden in fear of another storm. But Thom took the risk and crept out to where the District 1 tributes had been. The dead tributes had been taken away but their weapons had been left behind and their weapons were what Thom wanted. Now the main competition was gone and most tributes didn't dare leave their shelters, Thom could be the one to hunt them down!

He would only move by day as the nights were filled with storms and rain but slowly he did find the other tributes and he did manage to kill them all with the showdown being between him and a small girl from District 5 that had no weapons and could only scream in fear as Thom took out a bow and arrow and shot her in the neck. The 4th Hunger Games had been a success so Augustus Snow got to keep his job as Head Gamemaker and soon became the tributes worst nightmare


	5. 5th Hunger Games- Maia

5th Hunger Games

Winner: Maia District 7

This year was particularly significant in the history of the Hunger Games as it was the first year the victor wasn't from a Career district although at the time there was no such thing as a Career district; District 1 and 2 just had a reputation for being the strongest two districts. The 5th Hunger Games was also the first year that someone won without just using sheer strength and weapons. Maia, the victor of the 5th Hunger Games, used trickery and the resources around her to win which no one had ever done before.

From the start Maia knew she had no chance of overcoming the other tributes using weapons. She was small and weak and found out in the 3 days of training that she was probably the worst at sword fighting, archery, target practise, basically everything to do with attacking other tributes. So she joined the other tributes that had no chance of defeating anyone at the survival bases, learning how to tie knots and make fires. Here was where Maia shone. She came from District 7, where wood was produced so she had spent nearly her whole life in trees. She could get food out of them and knew which plants where safe to eat that grew around the trees. Maia was brilliant at climbing trees and being small and light, she could climb the thinnest branches where no one else could go. As long as there were trees in the arena, Maia was safe.

As Maia's podium rised up into the arena, she was silently praying for trees. Her podium broke onto the surface, she looked around. The arena was….a wood. When the gong went off, Maia knew exactly what to do and she ran away from the Cornucopia into the wood to hide up a tree. Maia stayed in the trees for 2 days, listening to the sounds of other tributes being killed. 9 had been killed in the bloodbath, nearly all of them killed by the boy tribute from District 2. This year District 2 had the strongest tributes, not District 1. Maia ate bark from the trees and found a small stream for water. Apart from collecting water, Maia never came down. Her plan was to stay hidden for as long as she could.

On the 2nd night Maia woke up to sound of crackling logs and the smell of smoke. Forest fire! She jumped down from her tree and quickly ran away from the fire, dodging fireballs and burning logs. But she never left the wood. Maia depended on the trees. Eventually once the fire had killed a few tributes it stopped and Maia was able to climb back into a tree and hide again. But she had narrowly avoided death; you couldn't hide from a fire. Maia couldn't stay hidden forever; she needed to start eliminating the competition before some other disaster made by the Gamemakers killed her. Maia had no weapons but she did have the trees.

The next day Maia moved to a tree near the Cornucopia. The remaining tributes would have to come back here as it was the main food source. She hid in her tree waiting for a tribute to walk past. After a few hours, the starving girl from District 6 walked directly underneath Maia's tree. Smack! A huge branch hit the girl killing her instantly. Maia had managed to cut a branch free and then drop it on the girl's head. And her plan had worked. Before the body could be taken Maia quickly jumped down and took a knife from the girls pocket – a knife would make things much easier in cutting the branches. After the body was taken, Maia moved the branch so no one would suspect that was how she'd died and climbed back up her tree to lie in wait for the next person.

Over the next few days, Maia killed anyone who went to the Cornucopia by dropping branches on them. She had killed 7 tributes before she realised that there was only one tribute left that she had to kill. So she waited and waited and waited but they didn't come. She waited for one more day before the last tribute finally last tribute was Remus, the boy from District 2 and he was incredibly tall and strong.

Maia wouldn't have a chance if it came down to a fight. Maia jumped from tree to tree to get near him before throwing the huge log she had cut off. But as she jumped to the last tree, she startled several birds that flew away squawking. This caught the attention of Remus who suspected Maia was up there and fired an arrow into the tree. It hit Maia in the leg and she screamed which made Remus fire another one which hit Maia's other leg. As Maia tried to ignore the pain and get the branch ready, arrows rained around her and a few more hit her in the legs, as that was the only part of her Remus could actually see. Just as Maia was about to pass out from the pain, she let the branch fall but seconds later she lost her balance and fell too. The branch hit Remus in the head killing him instantly but as Maia fell, no one knew if she'd survive the fall. She hit the ground at an awkward angle and didn't get up again. She was lifted into an aircraft and was given life-saving surgery which involved the amputation of both her legs leaving her with prosthetic ones. It took a week before the Capitol could see their new victor but Maia was a legend. She was the first victor that hadn't used a weapon from the Cornucopia against another tribute and was the inspiration for many other victors to come that won form being smart instead of being killing machines.


	6. 6th Hunger Games- Crescent

6th Hunger Games

Winner: Crescent District 9

Each Hunger Games was very different to the last but this one was especially different. This year the tributes main rival wasn't another tribute, it was the arena. Each year was about the survival of the strongest tributes but this year it was the survival of the toughest. This year it didn't matter how good you were with weapons, if you couldn't handle the arena you didn't stand a chance. As always District 1 and 2 were considered to be the strongest but even with the two District 1tributes working together (which happened nearly every year after the 3rd Games) it was only a matter of time before they died.

Whilst the Gamemakers were creating this horrific arena, the districts were starving to death because of a drought in District 9 and 11. Extreme temperatures throughout District 9 and 11 lasted about a year resulting in a shockingly bad harvest resulting in no food for any of the districts. There were hot temperatures in a few of the other districts but they didn't feel as much as District 9 and 11 because all the work in those two districts was done outside under the baking sun. This meant that in the reaping this year, most of the tributes were undernourished and weak especially the tributes from Districts 9 and 11.

The 3 days of training had to be postponed a day because nearly all the tributes had become ill from eating too much rich food from the Capitol. When the girl from District 12 brought it up during the chariot ride and then three more tributes were ill that night, the training was postponed for a day. The Capitol was disgusted and didn't want to see any vomit in the arena – yet they loved blood and gore. The tributes weren't allowed any rich food until it was time to go into the arena

Once the 3 days of training was over, the tributes were rushed into the arena before any of the tributes could be ill again. The arena this year, the arena that would test the tributes like never before was… a desert. When the tributes' podiums surfaced there was a collective groan from all the districts. How could the tributes survive this? There were no sources of water apart from the Cornucopia, just endless sand. Strangely there was also a fire burning in the Cornucopia which made no sense as it was boiling. When the gong sounded nearly all the tributes went to the Cornucopia instead of running as they all wanted the Games to be over as soon as possible and killing everyone straight off seemed like a good idea. Despite all the tributes eagerness to kill, only 10 tributes died in the bloodbath as the immense heat made the remaining tributes too tired to carry on. Slowly the number of tributes left at the Cornucopia dwindled as stocked with supplies, they all went off to try and find shelter from the heat. Some of the tributes who stayed relatively close to the Cornucopia were the tributes from District 9 and 11 who knew that when night came it would be freezing which is what the fire was for.

During that first day, tributes dropped like flies from dehydration or collapsing from the heat giving another tribute chance to kill them. Then as night drew in, poisonous lizards and insects brought in by the Gamemakers came out and killed several more tributes including both tributes from District 11 and the boy from District 9 – three of tributes who had stood the best chance of survival in the heat of the arena. This left Crescent, the girl from District 9. She stayed near the Cornucopia for the fire at night and the red-hot metal seemed to scare off the bugs and lizards. As night drew in, more tributes died from the cold meaning that there were barely any tributes left even though it had only been one day.

When morning came, the heat came with it and the tributes had to go from worrying about keeping warm to worrying about lack of water. Crescent wasn't too worried about the lack of water because even though the other tributes had taken nearly all the water from the Cornucopia, she was used to working long hours without a drink. However the rest of the tributes weren't and became weaker and weaker as the sun got hotter and hotter. Any thoughts of killing the other tributes were completely gone – the tributes only wanted to survive the immense heat. The tributes simply wandered around looking for water in the day and tried to keep warm at night. The only tribute who did any killing was Crescent who killed anyone that found their way back to the Cornucopia for more supplies. After 2 more days all the other tributes were dead and half-dead Crescent was declared the victor. At the age of 15, she was the first victor under 16.

The Gamemakers were in trouble. This had been one of the shortest Games and there had been barely any fights or weapons used. Instead the Capitol had to watch tributes slowly die of dehydration or freeze to death at night. The only excitement had been the bloodbath at the beginning and the occasional kill from a small 15 year old girl suffering from malnutrition. The idea of the desert was good but the immense heat? Not an exciting way to kill tributes. The Gamemakers were warned that if the next Games weren't gruesome and full of fights, they would meet the same fate as many of the tributes. So the Gamemakers had to think of something great that would satisfy the Capitol. They just had to make sure that next year was one of the most gruesome Hunger Games ever.


	7. 7th Hunger Games- Castor (First Sponsor)

7th Hunger Games

Winner: Castor District 2

As last year had been a failure for the Gamemakers due to lack of fighting, they had to make the 7th Hunger Games particularly violent to satisfy the Capitol's need for blood and gore. Luckily for them this year's victor, Castor – the boy from District 2, was extremely violent and didn't seem to be particularly upset about being picked in the reaping. The other tributes were very intimidated by him including the girl from District 2 who had been hoping to become his ally like the tributes from District 1 did almost every year. Castor was definitely the one to beat.

During the 3 days of training, Castor intimidated everyone and seemed to have a natural talent for killing people violently, proving to be exceptional at using any weapon he was given. The Gamemakers needed blood and gore and Castor seemed to be the one that was going to provide it – as long as he didn't die in the bloodbath. But he was so strong there was very little chance of that happening so the Gamemakers weren't worried. But they should've been.

The arena that year was quite plain and rocky terrain, and a huge mountain was in the middle next to the Cornucopia. As the Gamemakers had assumed, Castor led the bloodbath killing 8 tributes before the rest ran away, knowing they wouldn't have a chance. Armed with weapons, Castor set off to track them all down and had killed another 3 before nightfall. The Capitol were loving it; each death they had seen so far had been bloody and gory, nothing like last year. This games was going to be a success for the Gamemakers definitely. Until the head Gamemaker Augustus Snow made a huge mistake that jeopardised the success of the 7th Hunger Games. What did he do that was so bad?

He turned the mountain into a volcano.

It was the 5th night and Castor had killed almost half of the tributes by himself without receiving any injury whatsoever. He had returned to the Cornucopia, knowing that the other tributes would probably return for supplies at some point, when the volcano erupted. Lava spewed everywhere and several cannons were heard instantly. Castor ran for his life and only just managed to get away but he had sustained some life-threatening burns. The Capitol was in uproar. Castor couldn't die, his killings were too entertaining. The Gamemakers were in deep trouble if Castor died and Augustus Snow would probably lose his job…or worse. Castor needed medicine but the Gamemakers couldn't give it him or place it in the Cornucopia as it would be favouritism, which would probably start a rebellion in the districts. There was no way for the Gamemakers to give Castor the medicine. He would die a prolonged and painful death. Or he would have if it hadn't been for the Capitol.

The Capitol knew the Gamemakers couldn't save their beloved Castor as it would show favouritism, but the audience were allowed favourites and surely they should be allowed to help their favourites win. After many protests and arguments between the Gamemakers and the people of the Capitol, Castor became the first tribute to get a sponsor and receive a gift. The medicine healed his burns, giving him enough strength to continue his search for the remaining tributes.

The tributes were now to just 4 as the lava from the volcano had wiped out many of the tributes. All of the remaining four had received some sort of injury and only Castor had medicine which the other tributes found out about as the rule about sponsors had been announced. They also knew that Castor would've probably returned to the Cornucopia after the eruption and all three of them knew that if they wanted to win, Castor would have to go. So each of them separately made there way down to the Cornucopia in the hope of killing Castor.

The first to arrive was the boy from District 5, who decided to sneak up at night and kill Castor in his sleep. Unfortunately he woke Castor on his arrival and was instantly killed. Hearing the cannon go off, the other two guessed that the boy from District 5 had attempted to kill Castor and had failed. But maybe Castor was injured from the fight. Now was the best time to go and kill him before he recovered. Both tributes set off at the same time and arrived at the Cornucopia at about the same time. They were right Castor had taken a few cuts and scratches but nothing too serious. One of the tributes, the boy from District 10, saw his chance and went for it running into the open to try and catch Castor off guard. A few seconds later he had an arrow through his throat; Castor had been prepared. The last remaining tribute was the girl from District 4, Pearl, and on seeing this she knew she didn't really have a chance. But Castor would just hunt her down and her supplies were running down. She needed to act now. Armed with only a sword, Pearl ran up behind him and tried to hit Castor in the back but she missed and only grazed his shoulder. Castor whipped round armed with a bow and arrow and Pearl tried to dodge the attack of oncoming arrows but she was too slow and he was very accurate and after about 30 seconds she died from an arrow to the stomach.

Castor had won but he would've died if it hadn't been for the sponsors. He was extremely grateful to the Capitol and suggested that they keep the idea and have sponsors every year for any tribute that the Capitol liked. The Capitol loved this idea and many of the districts also agreed as they could maybe send their tributes something small to help. The Gamemakers had no choice but to agree if they wanted to keep their jobs. This games had almost been another disaster and Augustus Snow, for one, valued his life above anything and was willing to do whatever it took to keep it and his job. So sponsors became a huge part of the Hunger Games and eventually once all the tributes had a mentor, the sponsors were persuaded into helping instead of it being completely voluntary. The sponsors would go on to save many tributes lives.


	8. 8th Hunger Games- Sylvia (First Score)

8th Hunger Games

Winner: Sylvia District 3

After a nearly disastrous Hunger Games last year, the Gamemakers really needed to do something extraordinary to reinstate their reputation in the Capitol. They needed something new, something to capture the Capitol's attention. But what? Well one thing that the Capitol dearly wanted was to know what the tributes were capable of before they entered the arena, especially now the tributes could get sponsors. So the Gamemakers came up with the idea of the individual evaluation of each tribute after the training, with the scores being released to the audience. This was added pressure for the tributes as they would now have to prove themselves worthy of getting sponsors by getting a good score. The competition between tributes had never been more fierce with them competing between each other before they even got to the arena.

Among the tributes this year was an extremely pretty girl from District 3 called Sylvia. Many people from the Capitol cried during the reaping when they saw such a pretty girl being condemned to death and she became an instant favourite. Sylvia wasn't particularly young at 16 and she wasn't the smallest tribute by a long way but no one seemed willing to put money on her. With her long brown hair and big blue eyes, she just didn't look like killer material. But Sylvia was determined to prove them all wrong!

During the days of training, Sylvia learnt survival skills and left the weapons to the stronger tributes, typically from District 1 and 2. Those tributes aimed to try and intimidate everyone whilst sharpening up on their weapon skills but Sylvia spent quite a lot of time watching them, watching how they moved and the different techniques they used. Still she didn't pick up a weapon until her evaluation. Being from District 3, the only evaluations the Gamemakers had seen so far were from the strongest tributes so they were still quite interested in watching them ;it'd be the tributes from District 7 onwards that would have difficulty keeping the Gamemakers focused on them. Sylvia went over to the swords and picked one up. She'd never used one before but had been studying the boy from District 2 who seemed very good with a sword and all she had to do was put what she'd learnt into practise. Sylvia walked over to the tributes stimulator and stepped in, a hologram, also holding a sword, instantly appeared. They began to fight and Sylvia found that she did know what she was doing and was actually pretty good. She defeated 6 holograms before the Gamemakers told her they'd seen enough. That night as the scores were displayed to the whole of Panem, Sylvia got a …8/12 – one of the highest scores.

The people who had once said Sylvia wasn't killer material had suddenly decided that she was their favourite. Pretty and talented, she was raking in the sponsors. But although Sylvia had all this before the Games even started, she was still at a disadvantage. She along with most other tributes didn't have a mentor. It was all very well her having lots of help but there was no one to give her advice and only a Capitol attendant to receive the sponsors who may not give her them at the right moment or know what she really needed. Once again the tributes from District 1 and 2 had the advantage as they both had two mentors, the others would just have to do the best they can.

The arena this year was a huge beach with the Cornucopia in the middle of the water so if the tributes couldn't swim, they were dead. There was endless sand which eventually stretched out into meadows at one side and huge great cliffs leading to the sea on the other. When the gong sounded, as usual, the strong tributes raced to get weapons and the rest fled the oncoming slaughter. But a few had nowhere to go as they were unable to swim and a few could only swim partly and could only attempt to get away as they were killed by much faster and stronger swimmers who pulled them under the water and held them there. Unsurprisingly the tributes from District 4 were especially good at drowning the weaker tributes. Sylvia knew she wasn't the best swimmer so she escaped as soon as the gong went off seeking higher ground to watch out for her enemies.

That night Sylvia got everything she needed from sponsors: food, water and more importantly a sword. Maybe if she'd had a mentor, she wouldn't have received all of it in one night but she was still grateful for the help. The next day, Sylvia who was full of strength, headed down back to beach with her sword confident that she could kill whoever stood in her path. Many had died trying to swim from the Cornucopia to the beach and the stronger tributes had gone off to hunt the rest down so the beach was deserted. So Sylvia went back up to the cliffs as she didn't know the grasslands and didn't feel comfortable as the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 might've been there.

When she got back to the cliffs Sylvia found one of the tributes hidden in a bush, sleeping. One simple cut and he was dead. Yes Sylvia was capable of killing but she after that one death she felt awful and definitely wasn't going to go hunting other tributes down. She killed someone in their sleep and now felt like a monster. So she waited up on the cliffs, defending herself when she needed to and killing 4 more tributes, feeling horrible for it each time. After 7 days of this, there were only two tributes left – Sylvia and the boy from District 2.

By now Sylvia had killed 5 people and felt completely awful. Those tributes had families who had watched her kill them. She did it to survive as they had all attacked her but now, she wasn't even sure it was worth surviving if their deaths were the price. So when the last remaining tribute came looking for her, she was debating whether to bother putting up a fight. But then she saw her opponent properly. He was covered in other people's blood and was smiling like a maniac. If he killed Sylvia he would win and he got the chance to have one final fight. He had been one of the tributes who had hunted the others down. Without thinking Sylvia, overcome by anger at his pleasure from killing, grabbed her sword and began to fight. He also had a sword and they went round and round both evenly matched. But neither of them realised that they were getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. The boy had his back to the cliff as he chopped at Sylvia and cut a big gash in her arm, meaning she couldn't use her sword as she was could only fight with her left hand. He smiled again and advanced to administer the killer wound. Sylvia couldn't fight but unknown to the boy, she didn't care if she died so ran at him and threw them both of the cliff. The boy went down screaming into the sea but she managed to hang onto a branch and a helicopter swooped down to save her. Sylvia had won.

Over the next few weeks Sylvia cried and cried. She couldn't believe she had killed someone and the Victory tour nearly drove her insane with guilt, seeing the families of the dead. She was driven to taking morphine to ease the pain and soon became addicted. Sylvia mentored the tributes from District 3 each year and became more upset every time they died. The next time a District 3 tribute won, she stepped down immediately and lived a life of solitude. This Games proved that not all victors get the happy ever after they deserved and in most districts, victors weren't envied or hated.


	9. 9th Hunger Games- Beatrice

9th Hunger Games

Winner: Beatrice District 12

By now half of the districts had a mentor to help their tributes but 6 districts were yet to win a Hunger Games and produce a victor. Some of these districts had come quite close to winning but hadn't quite but some districts hadn't really come close and one district that looked like it would never get a victor was District 12. District 12's only claim to fame was in the 6th Hunger Games, when the girl tribute had thrown up on the chariot ride due to eating too much after months of starvation, causing the games to be postponed that year. Nearly all the districts had had a tribute that came close to winning at some point meaning District 12 had to win soon if it didn't want a reputation as the worst district. Fortunately, the 9th Hunger Games was District 12's year.

It started off well at the reaping. District 12 had been cursed with having very young or small children being picked at the reaping so they had never really stood a chance. But the two tributes drawn out this year were strong and both 17. This was going to be District 12's year!

In training the boy from District 12, Jack, soon found his strength was with an axe and proceeded to spend all his time training with it. District 12's girl, Beatrice, discovered she was pretty decent with most weapons but she was better at hands-on attacks such as choking a victim to death. Whilst Beatrice was alright with weapons, the other strong tributes, including Jack, were killing machines when a weapon was put into their hands. When it actually came down to a fight, Beatrice wouldn't stand a chance and she knew it. She could maybe overcome a scared 12 year old or a weak 14 year old but never one of the big strong tributes, typically from District 2 and 1. She'd have to think of another way to survive.

This year's arena turned out to be perfect for Beatrice although it didn't look like much. It was a big grassy area with endless amounts of boulders and rocks, with little nooks and crannies hidden in the huge field of boulders. The Cornucopia was in the middle of a huge grassy area, with no boulders to hinder anyone's escape when the gong went off. Tributes could either flee or try and fight.

When the gong went off, Beatrice was frozen to her podium with fear. Should she fight or run? Seconds passed and the other stronger tributes had already grabbed weapons and were spreading out to attack. It was too late. Beatrice would never get her hands on a weapon before someone attacked her. She had to flee. With no supplies whatsoever, Beatrice fled to the boulders, all hope of fighting forgotten.

For days Beatrice hid in the boulders, never making a sound, never attracting attention to herself. She ate the bugs she could find under rocks but she needed a water supply. Thankfully an opportunity came late in the night of the first day with the arrival of Jack, the other tribute from District 12. He had obviously been fighting and had a huge gash in his leg that was slowly turning green and was definitely infected. Jack was staggering around, clutching the boulders for support and every step was a gigantic effort. Beatrice knew he would die soon. She should've gone out to help him or at least be there while he died but she stayed hidden in the shadows waiting for a cannon. After a mere 2 hours of watching Jack try to walk, a cannon went off. Jack was dead. District 12 would be grieving right now even more than usual as Jack had shown true potential unlike Beatrice who was hiding away. Beatrice should do the decent thing and walk away. But she couldn't. Jack would've probably got some water which she needed badly. She would have to search his body before the helicopters came to take them away. So Beatrice felt through his pockets and found a decent water supply. Ashamed at her disrespect for a dead person from District 12, Beatrice retreated back into the shadows of the boulders to hide.

On the 6th day, Beatrice could stay hidden no longer. The competition was getting close now and the handful of tributes left were armed with weapons to hunt the other tributes down. If one were to find Beatrice, she would be dead in seconds. Jack had had an axe but Beatrice had left it, knowing she would have no idea how to fight with it. But she was weaponless and even if she did leave hiding where would she go? Unfortunately Beatrice didn't have time to think about this because at that moment, the girl from District 8 came into view, running straight towards her brandishing a sword!

Time seemed to stop as the girl from District 8 charged towards Beatrice. Beatrice would be dead in approximately 5 seconds. She was vulnerable; had no weapons and was utterly alone. She was dead. The girl was getting closer, she couldn't run. The girl raised her sword and… clang! Beatrice had ducked to the side and the sword had hit the hard rocky ground. The girl picked up her sword and whirled round to face Beatrice but Beatrice was nowhere to be seen. The girl looked around wondering what to do and then suddenly felt a sharp pain in her leg and fell to the ground; Beatrice had kicked her in the shin and tripped her up. Beatrice tackled her to ground and grabbed hold of her neck, squeezing hard. The girl spluttered and fought to get free but Beatrice had a firm grip and held on until finally the girl fell still. Against all odds, Beatrice had overcome the much more prepared girl from District 8. But to Beatrice, it was a sign of hope. She had a sword now and she had been able to overpower someone – maybe, just maybe, she could win this thing. One thing was certain, Beatrice wasn't going to hide away anymore.

There were now only 5 tributes left including Beatrice and they were all well armed and had all killed at least one tribute by now. They were all fairly close to each other as well, though they didn't know it due to most of the tributes hiding in the boulders. Beatrice had her next run-in with another tribute as she was settling down in a cave for the night. It was the boy from District 6 but he had a half-mangled arm from a fight from a fellow tribute earlier on and as District 6 had no mentor yet, he had received no medicine from sponsors. It was a miracle he could move at all, never mind try and fight a fellow tribute. But he was determined and Beatrice had to fight him even though he was weak and shaking from a fever. It was all over in seconds for him as Beatrice grabbed her sword and slit his throat. One down. Three to go.

Beatrice spent the night in that cave after the body had been taken away and she slept quite well considering she had just murdered someone until she heard footsteps outside. Sword in hand, she crept outside to see the boy from District 1 prowling about, looking for victims. If she was going to survive a fight with him, Beatrice would need the element of surprise. She crept up behind him till she was close enough then threw her sword, aiming for his back. But she missed and got him in the shoulder. Howling the pain, the boy turned round and threw a knife towards Beatrice but she dodged so it only nicked her ear. Frustrated the boy charged towards her and grabbed her sword hand, flinging the sword away and breaking Beatrice's fingers in his bone-crushing grip. Beatrice grabbed his sword with her other hand to try and stop it entering her stomach whilst kicking him repeatedly in the knee. He stumbled slightly giving Beatrice chance to free her injured hand then she punched the boy's shoulder and he fell to the ground screaming. She kicked his sword away then grabbed his neck and squeezed, screaming in pain of her broken fingers. Eventually the boy stopped moving. Beatrice had killed one of the strongest tributes in the Games. This gave her confidence but she was in no shape to fight anyone else and there was still the girl from District 4 and the boy from District 10 left.

Hours passed and Beatrice was feeling extremely weak and light-headed from her fight. But then she heard a cannon. Silence. Then another cannon. The remaining two tributes were both dead. They must've found each other and finished each other off. Beatrice had beaten them without lifting a finger and she was now the victor of the 9th Hunger Games. Finally District 12 had a victor and a mentor to help them!

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	10. 10th Hunger Games- Stork

**Authors Note: So if you've read this far you're probably thinking that none of the past victors have been mentioned yet, I haven't forgotten them and am going to write Mags' Hunger games soon. Also by the time Haymitch wins the Hunger Games, there will be no other victors from District 12. xxx**

10th Hunger Games

Winner: Stork District 8

This year was of particular importance as it was the first year that the last two tributes were from the same district – District 8. It was a very difficult time for District 8 to have to watch both their tributes reach the final two. Surely this was something worth celebrating, the victor would definitely be from District 8! But the victor would have to live with seeing the family of the other tribute that they had killed every day, knowing that they were responsible for that family's grief. It would be hard but it was better than having no tribute return home. But who would it be? Stork or Twyla?

When the two names were called out at the reaping for District 8, both Stork and Twyla were slightly comforted as they both knew each other quite well and it would be nice to have a friendly face in the Capitol, even if they would be enemies in the arena. District 8 didn't have a mentor at this point so Stork and Twyla depended on each other for advice and support. In the training they went round separately, each trying a little bit of everything and after talking about it afterwards they discovered a common interest. Snares. Being from District 8 which specialises in textiles, Stork and Twyla had no real experience with snares but they were both good with their hands so were both good at setting up the complicated traps. They both decided they would use snares as their way to kill as neither were brilliant with weapons. But they couldn't both use snares – they'd end up being the last two and as much as Stork and Twyla wanted to survive, they weren't going to kill each other. So what should they do? It was Stork who came up with the idea. They could work together and make an alliance with each other. District 1 had done it in past years so why shouldn't they? Stork and Twyla would work well as a team as they knew each other and had the same strengths and weaknesses. At first, Twyla was unconvinced that this idea would stop them both reaching the final two but she came around when Stork suggested that they could always split up if it got down to the last few tributes. So it was decided. Stork and Twyla would help each other out.

The arena this year was a vast forest with lots of different animals and plants which would be a good source of food for a tribute if they knew what to eat. When the gong sounded Stork sprinted off to get some supplies which were further out from the Cornucopia and Twyla ran up to defend him against anyone else to show that they were a team. When Stork had grabbed them a sleeping bag and a bottle of water each they ran off into the forest to work out what to do.

After distancing themselves from the other tributes, Stork and Twyla stopped for a quick break while they decided what to do. By now, they were well into the forest where there were many animals and somewhere nearby a river as they had heard the sound of rushing water earlier. Twyla went off in search of water and returned about 10 minutes later with the river not being very far away from where they were sitting.

She had re-filled their bottles of water and they sat there resting as darkness began to creep in and the cannons sounded for the fallen tributes from the bloodbath. Neither Twyla or Stork spoke, they sat in silence for a while until Stork said

"We need a plan, we cant stay here for ever. Eventually the other tributes will come this far out and find us." Twyla nodded

"The first thing we need to do is get some food and I think we should use snares to do it. And then…maybe we could set a few snares up to …trap other tributes." There was an awkward silence and Twyla looked horrified with what she had just said but Stork knew she just wanted to survive this. He felt exactly the same.

The next morning, with growling stomachs, Twyla and Stork set up some simple snares in the hope of catching some animals as in the meantime they could only eat a blue berry that Twyla could remember from the Training. They were in luck and caught two rabbits and a squirrel. Both Twyla and Stork were well fed, had enough to drink and were well rested. They had no real need to stay so far away from the rest of the other tributes anymore, so they headed back towards the Cornucopia to set up a few snares designed to trap the other tributes. Once the tribute was trapped they wouldn't last long as they'd become dehydrated or be finished off by another tribute. It was grim work but both Twyla and Stork felt better knowing they wouldn't actually have to kill the tribute. They set a few up not far from the Cornucopia and then headed back to the river where they spent the night taking turns to watch and listening for any more cannons. 2 went off in the night.

The next morning, Stork and Twyla went to check their snares and found that two of their snares had been sprung which explained the two cannons in the night. Both tributes had actually been killed by another tribute. Although the pair were shocked about what they'd done, they were delighted that their snares worked and set up a few more around the Cornucopia, staying away from the other tributes at all times. Stork had a close shave with another tribute when he was collecting food. The male tribute from District 1 came out of nowhere armed with weapons and Stork had no choice but to run dodging his own snares with the District 1 tribute in hot pursuit and throwing knives. Fortunately just as one of the knives nicked Stork's ear the District 1 tribute got caught up in one of Stork's traps and Stork had to kill him with one of the tributes weapons as it was extremely likely that this strong, big tribute would escape one of Stork's weaker traps.

Day after day Stork and Twyla continued to set up snares for food and other tributes and hiding out by the river at night. But when it got down to only a few tributes left, Twyla began to consider leaving Stork so they wouldn't make it down to the final two together. Stork begged her not to leave as he didn't want to be alone and Twyla agreed to stay with every intention of leaving. That night Twyla took the first watch and left whilst Stork slept. She intended to make some snares of her own and if Stork walked into one… well in the end there could only be one winner and as much as Twyla didn't want to kill Stork she would if she had to. Stork was angry and upset that Twyla had left him but continued his daily ritual of checking his snares and building a few more each day. With two sets of snares set up all over the forest, the other tributes could barely take a step without being trapped so it was really no surprise when Twyla and Stork became the final two. District 8 would have a victor.

The finale took place by the Cornucopia. Realising they were the only two left, Stork wanted to avoid Twyla's snares and Twyla wanted to avoid Stork's snares so the only safe ground for either of them was the area around the Cornucopia. Stork arrived first and prowled around the Cornucopia brandishing a spear waiting to see what Twyla would do. Maybe they could talk and work this out; he had no intention of killing someone he knew. Unfortunately Twyla did not feel the same as she wanted to go home and she made her presence known by sending a volley of arrows, she had taken from a trapped tribute, towards Stork. He dodged them and hid behind the Cornucopia as she advanced holding a sword. Before either of them realised what was happening, Twyla had a spear in her side. She fell to the ground and laid there for some time before she died as Stork stood watching, unable to move in shock. He'd just won the Hunger Games by killing someone he knew and would now have to live with that back in District 8 for the rest of his life.


	11. 11th Hunger Games- Quinn

11th Hunger Games

Winner: Quinn District 6

Although District 2,1 and 4 were considered to have the strongest tributes they hadn't actually won in a while so their reputations were starting to fade. This year would see some of the strongest tributes from these three districts. Last year had seen two tributes from the same district battle it out and the Capitol were eager for another terrific showdown.

At the reaping, when the tributes for District 1, 2 and 4 were called out, it was obvious that they were going to be the main competition this year. None of the other tributes had a chance in a fight with these incredibly strong tributes and they knew it.

However, one tribute who had a plan was Quinn from District 6. She was one of the youngest tributes to have been in the Games so far and was the smallest. She was weak and in training found she could barely lift a sword. What chance did she have? Well she had very good aim and was exceptional with a slingshot which she could she easily make in the arena.

Quinn knew that she was good with slingshot but she chose to keep it hidden to the other tributes but obviously the Gamemakers knew Quinn's talent because of the individual evaluation in which she had received a 7. So only they knew that she did have a small chance of standing up against someone if she had to. The Capitol, of course, had absolutely no idea.

The arena this year was old stone ruins of what could've once been a series of ancient temples but the beauty of it was somewhat ruined by the metal Cornucopia right in the middle of the arena. When the gong sounded the strongest tributes from Districts 1,2 and 4 wasted no time in grabbing weapons and picking off the other tributes who had stayed to grab supplies. Quinn was so small she could dart in between the fighting tributes, grab a few vital supplies and then ran off into the ruins to find somewhere to hide. The Capitol audience didn't even notice her, they assumed she'd be murdered later on in the day. One thing was definite, she'd be lucky if she survived the night.

Surprisingly, Quinn met no competition that night but was still troubled. She couldn't make a slingshot as there were no resources to use and her sleeping bag and clothing couldn't be ripped through to help tributes survive the freezing nights. Quinn desperately needed a slingshot – she wouldn't survive without one. She had access to plenty of rocks but throwing rocks isn't as powerful or accurate as using a slingshot. She had a decent branch to use but needed something to stretch the rock wouldn't work and there weren't any anyway and Quinn had no access to any sort of material; she had been relying on being able to cut through her clothes or sleeping bag.

Just when she had given up hope, there was a faint tinkling noise, she had a sponsor. This was very surprising to everyone as District 6 didn't have a mentor yet so no one except the Gamemakers knew that Quinn was any good with a slingshot. Well, Quinn had forgotten about her friends from District 6. They'd seen her practise, they'd knew but Quinn hadn't thought that anyone from District 6 could afford to give a gift. Yet in front of her was a brilliant sturdy-looking slingshot!

Quinn was now back in the running and she had an advantage over the other tributes. She was so small that the other tributes didn't try and hunt her down, assuming she would die soon anyway and the Capitol had no interest in her preferring to watch the stronger tributes fight between each other. So when Quinn made her first kill it was a surprise to everyone.

It had been a few days since Quinn had received her slingshot but even with this weapon, she had chosen to hide until some of the stronger tributes had killed each other off. The tributes from District 1,2 and 4 could've been deadly if they'd joined forces but they had chosen to eliminate each other instead which was a relief for the other remaining tributes including Quinn. Once there only 2 of the original 6 strongest tributes left, Quinn left her hiding spot to test the strength of the slingshot and because she needed some more water which could only be found in the Cornucopia. She walked back to the Cornucopia, quite confidently, and didn't meet anyone. But when she got to the Cornucopia, she found that someone was already there. The boy tribute from District 4 was there, guarding the Cornucopia from anyone else. Quinn dove behind a pillar to hide before he had spotted her and loaded up her slingshot with a sharp ragged stone. Then she crept out from behind the stone pillar and before the tribute form District 4 knew what had happened, he had been hit in the forehead and died instantly.

The Capitol was shocked, the small weedy-looking girl had actually killed someone and not just anyone- she had killed one of the strongest tributes left! After the surprise wore off, it was replaced by anger. She could've starved or needed something and she wouldn't have got it from any of the rich sponsors as they all thought she wasn't worth the money. They'd seen her training score but it was only a 7, nothing to get particularly excited over. The Capitol had been much more interested in the 9's and 10's that the stronger tributes had got. How were they to know what Quinn could do? She could've done anything to earn that 7. If it hadn't been for Quinn's friends in District 6, Quinn may well be dead by now having been defenceless which meant the Capitol would have missed out on this extraordinary death.

Meanwhile Quinn had killed two more tributes and like the boy from District 4, they hadn't even seen her before she killed them with a stone to the head. The Capitol watched with interest as she became the strongest tribute overnight and went on to provide them with some very entertaining deaths. The last tribute took a bit more work from Quinn as he had seen her kill the girl from District 11 so was ready for her meaning Quinn couldn't sneak up on him. She had to face him in the open. He had bow, she had a slingshot. She started it sending a rock into his chest but it didn't quite kill him and he retaliated by sending a arrow. She jumped out the way but was a little to late and it cut into her shoulder. Quinn sent two more rocks one after the other, another to the chest and one to the head and the other tribute was finished. Quinn, the smallest tribute had won.

The Capitol were pleased with this years games having witnessed lots of interesting deaths but they were still fuming about not recognising Quinn's talent straightaway. If she hadn't been given a slingshot she definitely would not have even come close to winning and the Capitol would've missed some brilliant entertainment. Also the Capitol loved their victors and felt it wasn't fair that Quinn had been under estimated from the start due to her height. Something had to be done to stop this happening again. But what?


	12. 12th Hunger Games-Mags (First Interview)

**Authors Note: So this is the first Hunger Games of one of the canon tributes. Hope you like it xx**

12th Hunger Games

Winner: Mags District 4

The 11th Hunger Games had ended with the Capitol wanting to find a way to stop tributes being over looked. What the Capitol really needed was a way to find out more about the tributes before they went into the arena. One of the Gamemakers came up with the idea at the end of the Victory Tour when the victor was asked how she felt. Why not have interviews for the tributes the night before the Hunger Games started? That way all the emotions that the tributes felt could be seen by the Capitol and they would get a proper understanding of each tribute. When the new idea was proposed everyone in the Capitol loved it so it was made official that starting from the 12th Hunger Games, there would be interviews from the tributes.

This announcement made up for the dismal Victory Tour that the districts had held this year. There had been a bad harvest this year and a famine had swept through the districts. This unfortunately gave the Gamemakers an idea. To make it really difficult for the tributes this year, there would be no food in the Cornucopia so the tributes would have to get their food by themselves or starve. This would be bad for nearly all the tributes except for the lucky ones who were used to having catching their own food such as the tributes from District 4.

At the reaping, the children that were picked all looked weak and tired, even the ones from District 1 and 2. Everyone looked malnourished and the ones who worked in the districts that handled the harvest distribution, District 9 and 11, looked like they would collapse at any moment from exhaustion and hunger. Anyone could win this year as none of the tributes looked particularly strong.

At the training, the tributes were warned that they would need to know certain survival skills this year and to at least spend a little time at those stations instead of just going straight to the weapons. The warning fell on deaf ears to quite a lot of tributes who wanted to build up their strength before the Games. After the last harvest fail, which has resulted in the tributes falling ill with the rich food (see the 5th Hunger Games), the Capitol were taking no chances and had given the tributes a strict diet. While this stopped them from being ill, it didn't help any of the tributes regain their strength and fitness. This resulted in over half the tributes not being prepared for what was to come.

The first ever interviews with the tributes went ahead as planned and they were a great success. Caligua Flickerman hosted these interviews and continued to do so until he died and his son Caesar took over. Thousands of people attended to see the tributes who mostly just answered yes or no to any question that was asked. This was the first set of interviews and the tributes had no idea what to expect and didn't provide a very exciting show. But the Capitol loved it and it became a Hunger Games tradition.

To make it a little easier for the tributes to find their own food, the arena this year was a huge river that stretched for miles with banks sloping up each side and huge clumps of bushes. The Cornucopia was on a bridge about halfway along the river. It was the only way to cross from one side to the other unless you were an exceptional swimmer.

When the gong sounded, as usual, some of the tributes grabbed a few things and ran and some ran straight to the Cornucopia and started the bloodbath. No one had noticed that there was no food; everyone was too focused on either getting away or the bloodbath. Mags had stayed at the Cornucopia long enough to get a spear and some other resources before running down the riverbank to get away from the other tributes. Hours had passed and still no one had noticed there was no food. Once the bloodbath calmed down, the winners began to leaf through the remaining supplies at the Cornucopia to see what there was and to their surprise they found there was no food left. Something wasn't right. There was usually lots of food left at the Cornucopia once the other tributes had gone. The tributes who had run away were staring to notice the lack of food once they opened their rucksacks and found that there was plenty of water but no food. At this news some weren't too worried because they assumed that there would be food at the Cornucopia and they would just have to go back when it got dark. That night many tributes went back to the bridge to look for food but no one dared to go up to the Cornucopia in fear of being killed. There was no such thing as alliances between tributes from other districts so there was no one defending the Cornucopia, but as there were so many tributes hiding near the bridge, it was likely that someone would be killed.

The tributes were camped out for hours just waiting for someone else to try first. During the night more and more tributes came, overcome with hunger, until all the remaining tributes were camped out near the Cornucopia waiting…watching to see if anyone would make a move. Eventually the boy from District 4, who had been reasonably well fed during the harvest and was struggling to cope with not eating for 16 hours, sprinted out from his hiding place to the Cornucopia. He was hoping to grab something quick. However when he got there, there weren't any obvious signs of food. In fact when he looked deep into the Cornucopia, there wasn't any at all! The rest of the tributes watched him eagerly to see if he would find any food but when he began to circle round the Cornucopia searching for food, it was clear that he wasn't going to find any. Just as the boy was debating on whether to tell the tributes he knew were hiding that there was no food, an arrow came zooming out of nowhere and buried itself in his chest. The other tributes quickly left, to avoid the hidden archer but they had the information they needed. They were going to have to find their own food.

The Hunger Games now became more of a race to find some food than to kill everyone else. Tributes were getting desperate and weren't really bothered about other tributes anymore unless they had food. Some tributes tried eating the insects that lived in the mud and all those tributes died, minutes after eating them as the insects were poisonous. Most tributes turned to the river for food but had difficulties catching any fish. The river simply swept away any tribute that tried to get in to catch fish and the pathetic fishing rods that some tributes tried to make were useless against the strong current. The tributes who had practised the survival skills were slightly more confident but struggled to actually keep the fish on the line as they reeled it in. The Capitol loved this. Tributes were dying all the time and it was prolonged and agonising, not like the quick deaths they'd got in the past Games. The Gamemakers even decided to stop tributes being sent any gifts involving food to make it even more difficult for them. However there was one tribute who knew what they were doing.

Mags had been fishing all her life. She could easily create a fishing rod and hook from just about anything. Her only main competition would've been the boy from District 4 who also knew how to fish, but he was dead leaving Mags to be the strongest tribute. The Capitol had under estimated the tributes from District 4 when they had created this arena; they didn't think the tributes would be old enough to know what to do. Mags was a problem that would the ruin the Games but would could the Gamemakers do? She was adored by the Capitol and killing her off would've put all their jobs on the line, she had to be allowed to live. So Mags just had to outlive the other tributes, without even using a weapon if she didn't want to.

This Games didn't have a very dramatic end and there had barely been any blood so the Gamemakers couldn't do something like this again for several years. But they didn't mind, it had been worth it. The Capitol absolutely loved watching the tributes slowly starve to death and seeing what lengths they would go to to get a meal; one tribute even tried to eat his own fingers. When the tributes were reaching their final moments, Mags would go and put them out of their misery with a quick spear in the heart. It was very clear she was going to win, being the only tribute who had a constant supply of food and she was doing a favour for the other tributes. If the boy from District 4 hadn't been killed, there might've been a showdown but Mags won the Games by only killing people who were nearly dead anyway. The Capitol had enjoyed this Games as a change from the usual gore but the 13th Games would be back to the usual killings and bloodshed. Mags would always be known as the kindest and most caring person to ever win the Hunger Games.


	13. 13th Hunger Games-Alby (First Mutts)

13th Hunger Games

Winner: Alby District 10

As this was the 13th Hunger Games there was unrest in the Capitol as many did worry that this year's Games would be a disaster. 13 was an unlucky number in the Capitol – District 13 had been obliterated and no one liked to mention it so the number 13 was considered bad by even the least superstitious people in the Capitol. The Gamemakers knew that everyone was worried so decided to introduce something new to take everyone's mind off it. Why not have some specially designed animals in the arena to liven up the deaths a little? That meant that not all the deaths would be the same and it would be good entertainment for the Capitol to see the tributes running around, scared of theses created animals. Some of the Gamemakers wanted to create these killing machines straight away and put them in the next Games but the more experienced Gamemakers decided to wait. They'd experienced what would happen if they jumped in with a new idea without giving it enough thought. No, the best thing to do would be to create an animal that would give the tributes a fright and would attack if it was angered or annoyed, put them in the Games and see what happens. If they were a success, the idea could be used again and again and then maybe in a few years they could move onto killing machines. These new creatures were to be called mutts and they were kept secret from everyone to make it that more exciting when they were released.

Meanwhile the famine was over in the districts so the tributes this year were much healthier than last year. As usual, the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 were the tallest and the strongest, except for the boy tribute from District 10 who was 18 and was easily the strongest tribute there. His name was Alby and everyone was intimidated by him, except the girl from District 10 who knew what he was really like. Alby was one of the most gentlest people you could meet. He was very quiet and barely said anything during the interview but the Captiol loved him as he had shown his strength by getting a 9 in the individual evaluation which was highest score this year.

To accommodate the mutts, this years arena was fields with a small wood on one side. After the many arguments and sleepless nights, the Gamemakers decided on the mutts to resemble bulls. The bulls wouldn't go looking for tributes to kill but they would attack anything that got to close. They would be released after the bloodbath, one for each remaining tribute. The Gamemakers made sure that if the tributes stayed out of the way, the bulls wouldn't attack. They were only there to scare the tributes.

The 13th Hunger Games started off like every other Hunger Games. The gong went off and the bloodbath began between the strongest tributes over the Cornucopia. Everyone expected Alby to take a main part in this but he just ran to the Cornucopia, grabbed what he needed, which included an axe, and took off into the fields killing only one tribute who got in his way. After a few hours the bloodbath was over, the remaining tributes were settling in and no one in the Capitol suspected anything out of the ordinary. The Capitol watched anxiously, positive something was going to go wrong. To settle the nerves, the Gamemakers decided to release the mutts, 17 mutts for the remaining 17 tributes.

It was a huge surprise for everyone to see 17 bulls appear out of thin air before wandering off to graze in the fields. The Capitol was shocked- where had these animals come from? The tributes, some of which had never seen an animal that big before, were petrified. They not only had other tributes to worry about but now these creatures as well. Would they attack the tributes? Were they food? The tributes completely forgot about each other as they went to investigate these creatures.

There were many deaths over the next few days. Some tributes tried to kill the mutts for food and ended up being killed themselves. Some weren't bothered by the bulls and simply ignored them but were attacked when they got too close. The boy from District 6, having never seen an animal this big, tried to get on one and charge down the other tributes. He died before he even got on the bulls back. When the mutts had been released, there had been one mutt for every tribute. But as each tributes died, the mutt stayed so by the beginning of the third day, the tributes were greatly outnumbered.

Alby had stayed far away from the mutts. District 10 worked with animals so he knew what normal bulls were like and chose not to get involved with these specially created ones. This was probably the best tactic and he was pretty sure the girl from District 10 would've done the same if she hadn't been killed in the bloodbath. Alby was normally quite gentle so spent the first few days of the Games avoiding both mutts and tributes. However as the days went on, the number of tributes decreased meaning that there were now 2 mutts for every tribute and it was nearly impossible to avoid confrontation with the bulls as Alby found out. It was the night of the 5th day and he was trying to sleep in an empty field when he heard two of the mutts wander in through the gate. The mutts were now blocking the exit and he was only 20 metres away from them. If they saw him they would attack. Alby was going to die. But instead of just waiting there he got up and slowly walked towards them. He had seen the boy from District 6 die whilst trying to ride one of the bulls and it had given him an idea. He had worked with animals all his life and knew what they were like so maybe he would stand a better chance of taming them. He walked slowly over to the nearest bull which stamped its feet but didn't attack. Singing softly to calm the animals, Alby reached the bull and softly stroked its back. The bull completely forgot about attacking and allowed Alby to stroke it. This attracted the attention of the other bull and soon both were happily being stroked by Alby.

Alby continued to gain the trust of the mutts for the rest of the night and by morning, he was confident that he could get them to go and seek out the other tributes to attack them. He was right. The bulls went off to find the other tributes with Alby not far behind to encourage them and if he saw any other mutts as they went along, he would tame them too. In a matter of days, the bulls had killed everyone else and Alby was the victor.

The Gamemakers were in despair. They had made the mutts to kind and had allowed them to be used as a weapon by one of the tributes. The Capitol had still found it interesting and entertaining but the mutts had failed the Gamemakers. There weren't supposed to be killing machines but they weren't supposed to be tameable! Some suggested scrapping the idea of mutts completely but it had been a good idea. Maybe if the mutts were killing machines, then tributes wouldn't be able to get close enough to tame them. So the idea of killing machine mutts was born.


	14. 14th Hunger Games-Perseus(1st Alliance)

14th Hunger Games

Winner: Perseus District 2

This year was very significant for the districts because it was the first year two different districts worked together in the arena. This was a huge deal for the districts because maybe it could be the start of district unity like in the Uprising. If all tributes could work together, then the districts could surely do the same. The same thought had occurred to the Capitol but instead of giving them hope, it worried them; they couldn't afford another Uprising. The districts couldn't start working together again which was the whole point of the Hunger Games – to turn the districts against each other. When it became obvious that there was an alliance between two districts, the Gamemakers were willing to kill the four tributes involved to stop district unity. It would be a high price to pay as these four tributes were particularly strong but it turned out that the Gamemakers didn't have to lift a finger. The four tributes would destroy themselves.

The reaping this year contained an unusual amount of strong tributes. There were only three tributes under the 16 and no one looked particularly weak or troubled. It was going to be a tough year.

In training no one showed any signs of teaming up, not even with their own district tribute. Even the three younger ones kept to themselves, although they must have known that they wouldn't survive on their own.

The arena was the rubble left from a destroyed city with the Cornucopia situated on top of what used to be a grand staircase into a building. Endless piles of stone stacked on top of each other, rocking as if they were going to come crashing down at any moment. There were little bits and pieces of everything scattered around and there was the occasional rat scurrying around. One of the commentators joked that maybe this was what the Capitol would look like one day. There was a new commentator for the Victory Tour.

When the gong sounded, some ran to get weapons and some ran to get away. However, because of where the Cornucopia was, the tributes with bows and arrows could pick off the ones trying to run down the stairs. By the end of the bloodbath, the ones who had tried to run were all dead. This meant that the remaining tributes could all fight well, had all got supplies and weapons and they were all strong and willing to kill. This was when the first alliance between districts was formed.

Perseus and the girl from District 2, Alexis, had been two of the best fighters in the Cornucopia and had both stayed behind in order to grab the best supplies at the end. However when the bloodbath died off, Perseus raced back to the Cornucopia to find Alexis already standing there. They both stood there for a minute, not moving. Neither of them wanted to kill the other but they didn't want to share supplies either. Suddenly out of nowhere, knives flew through the air and Perseus and Alexis only just avoided them. Perseus looked around for the knife-thrower and saw the boy from District 1 heading towards them brandishing an axe. Perseus drew his sword and Alexis grabbed a nearby spear, momentarily forgetting about each other. No sooner had the District 1 boy reached them, did another tribute come running in with a sword and it was none other than the girl from District 1.

Soon a four way battle began with each tribute fighting for themselves, Perseus seemed to fight Alexis just as much as the other two. The battle went on and on until all four had sustained several injuries. Perseus was suffering from a cut in the leg and was limping badly. He would be cut down soon unless…it was a crazy idea but it may just work.

Dropping his sword, Perseus jumped back and yelled "Stop!"

The other three surprisingly stopped and turned to look at him.

"Let's have an alliance. We could take down the others together."

The other three looked at each other for a moment then dropped their weapons.

"I'm Diamond and this is Yoren" said the girl from District 1. Perseus heard Alexis sniff when Diamond said her name – Diamond was a name used in the poorest areas in District 1. But after the introductions were made the four eventually learnt to trust each other. The Capitol were shocked and worried but decided to see what would happen. Little did they knew that one of them would ruin the alliance for them.

The alliance between District 1 and 2, the strongest tributes was a huge blow to everyone else in the 14th Hunger Games. They would've stood a chance against one or two of the four but all of them? The alliance killed nearly all the other tributes by the end of the week. They worked well together too. They took it in turns to go back to the Cornucopia for supplies and guarded each other whilst they slept. Diamond and Alexis didn't always see eye to eye but that was because Alexis felt she was better than Diamond. Apart from that, there couldn't have been a better team. In fact although all four had an escape planned, three of them were actually content with staying in the alliance.

But Perseus wasn't. Yes he had suggested the alliance but that had been to save his skin. Now he was stuck with three strong tributes and the competition was coming to an end. There weren't many tributes left and it was probably going to the four. Perseus needed to break away while he still could before they all started to turn on each other. But how? He couldn't leave in the night as there was always two guarding. He couldn't make a run for it because Yoren and Diamond were faster and would catch him up. For now all he could do was wait.

So Perseus waited and waited until it had been two nights since the last tribute had been killed leaving the four of them. The Capitol weren't going to send in any mutts- they wanted a fight to the death and Perseus would be the one to start it. He couldn't stand it anymore. He couldn't pretend this wasn't happening like the other three were but he couldn't leave either. They were going to have to kill each other- it was the only way. Perseus would have to kill them all.

At this moment he was on guard duty with Yoren just in case there were mutts. Yoren clearly thought that the watch was pointless and he seemed to be slowly drifting off to sleep, not nearly as alert as normal. Perseus knew he had to act now if he wanted to survive. It wasn't bad what he was going to do, he just wanted to go home.

Silently he drew his sword and sneaked up behind Yoren. With his eyes looking away, he slit the drowsing boy's throat. Yoren didn't even stir. Covered in blood, Perseus stepped back to see what he'd done. The girls still slept but they would start to wake as soon as the cannon fired. Perseus darted over to Alexis, sword in hand. He would much rather fight Diamond than Alexis if the canon woke either of them up. Alexis was still asleep when Perseus leant over her. He didn't really know her yet he still looked away as he slit her throat. This was much harder than killing Yoren. As the second canon went off, Diamond began to stir and was subconsciously reaching for her knife. By the time she had fully woken and seen Yoren and Alexis' bodies, Perseus was upon her with his blood-spattered sword aiming for her neck. Diamond tried to get up but Perseus had pinned her to the ground. The best she could do was to stab her knife into his arm before he slit her throat. The first alliance was finished and Perseus was the victor.

This had played right into the Capitol's hands. At first they had been petrified at the thought of an alliance between districts but it had worked out beautifully. The alliance had turned on each other and had provided the audience with an excellent show. If the tributes couldn't stick together in the arena, what hope did the districts have? The idea of alliances was also appealing to a lot of potential tributes that were watching. Teaming up with the strongest tributes seemed like a good way to survive. It would definitely be used again in the future.


	15. 15th Hunger Games- Shey

15th Hunger Games

Winner: Shey District 5

Up until now, the victors of the Hunger Games had nearly all been strong or quick and the ones that hadn't had all had a new-found talent with weapons. Yes not all of the victors had been favourites to win and some had been underestimated by the Capitol, but they all stood a chance once they had proved themselves to be capable of surviving. But this year was different. This year there was even doubt over whether the victor should be allowed to compete at all.

The reaping went ahead as normal and there was a variety of tributes picked this year, but the boys generally looked much stronger than the girls as nearly all the girls this year were under 15; apart from this the Capitol was satisfied with the tributes until they replayed the reapings that night. Something wasn't right in District 5.

When Shey's name was called out, she took her place quietly and let the escort do all the talking. Then she was taken to the station and that was the last anyone saw of her at the reapings. However when the reapings were replayed that night in the Capitol, quite a few people noticed that Shey was being prompted into doing things by the boy tribute and she was prompted to go on stage by the other girls when her name was called. It was revealed that Shey was deaf. She hadn't told anyone as her family was poor and she needed to work and get money for them and the Capitol wouldn't let her work if they found out she couldn't hear anything. So when her name was called out the rest of District 5 tried to help her keep her secret so her family wouldn't get in trouble for sending her to work.

The Capitol was in disarray. Should they let her compete? Should they punish her family? Would she be able to get through the training, the interview and the Games themselves? Whatever the Gamemakers did would be all over the media so they had to be careful not to upset the Capitol. It was decided that they would let her compete and that would be punishment enough for her family- she would probably die anyway. So Shey spent her time in training working in silence, no one tried to be friends with her or communicate with her at all. During the interview, Shey came on with the boy from District 5 who knew her reasonably well, and he helped her get through the interview. The Capitol weren't too sure if they loved her or hated her but she had definitely made an impression.

The arena this year was a huge reservoir with a dam at the end of it. The dam could be used as a strategic point if there was a tribute daring enough to try and climb it. The Cornucopia was situated in the middle of the reservoir so you would have to be able to swim if you wanted to do anything during these Games. Any food and water would come from the reservoir and there was barely any dry land in the whole arena.

When the gong sounded the tributes set off and the prediction that this year the girls were weaker than the boys came true, nearly all the tributes that died in the bloodbath were girls. However Shey survived as no on seemed to take any notice of her and she swam away to the dam. Hours passed and Shey kept swimming away from the Cornucopia determined to reach the dam. She was alone- there were no alliances this year and no one had offered the hand of friendship. It took Shey 4 hours to reach the dam as she had stopped to catch some fish and she wasn't a particularly strong swimmer. But she made it and now intended to climb the dam.

Meanwhile many of the other tributes had also had the same idea to try and reach the dam so after the bloodbath, quite a few of the other tributes set off after Shey to climb the dam themselves. It was so tall that if you had the right weapons, you could just pick everyone off. Everyone wanted to get to the top first.

But the dam was hard to climb, it was much steeper than any of the tributes had anticipated and with no real footholes it was nearly impossible. One by one, they began to drop off deciding that they'd have better look on ground; of course some tributes did fall to their deaths which encouraged many to stop trying. But one tribute managed to make it to the top. That tribute was Shey.

It had taken Shey hours to do it but she had managed to get to the top of the dam. Now she was able to see all the other tributes and kill any that were still climbing the wall. She had picked up an spear from the Cornucopia on the way out so she could potentially kill anyone that got to the top. However Shey didn't do any of those things- she didn't seem concerned about the threat of other tributes at all. Instead she walked back and forth for hours seemingly looking for something.

By now it was the third day of the Games and the Capitol had chosen their favourites out of the stronger tributes that were left, predictably from District 1 and 2. Everyone had forgotten about Shey and only two other tributes had made the top at the wall, only to take part in a three-way battle including Shey, in which the other two tributes had fallen to their deaths. Although she had proven to be handy with a spear, Shey still continued to search for something along the top of the dam and it was on the third day when she found it.

The dam held back a torrential amount of water which would easily fill the arena and drown any tributes but the Capitol weren't intending to use it as a killing machine; they wanted the tributes to climb up it and kill each other. To make it fair to all the tributes, the dam was built differently to the ones in District 5 so the District 5 tributes wouldn't know anything about the dam. At first Shey only wanted to get to the top so she could see the rest of the tributes but when she got to the top she found that she could use the actual dam to her advantage. Shey realised that whilst the dam was completely different to the one she worked with, it might have the same design flaw- a chink in the dam's armour that could destroy it. So of course Shey decided to try and find it. Once she found the miniscule opening on the side of the dam she stuck her spear in it and tried to dig the spear right into the dam where she could hopefully break it. She worked for hours, digging the spear into the heart of the dam and eventually, in the middle of the day, a distance rumbling told her she had done her job. Shey hoped that if she ran right to the edge of the dam, that the explosion of water coming through would not destroy the whole thing. She reached the very edge and crouched there, waiting…

Boom!

The dam broke away in the centre letting thousands of gallons of water rush through onto the remaining tributes hunting in the reservoir. They didn't stand a chance.

Within five minutes a half-drowned Shey was crowned the victor.

The Capitol were quite pleased with this outcome. The public loved the idea that Shey, who might not have even competed, had won the Games. The Capitol also knew to fix the design flaw in the dam in District 5, just in case anyone had the smart idea to destroy it. Most importantly, in the rebellion against the Capitol 60 years later, the rebels in District 5 came up with the idea to bomb the dam from Shey, who by then was nearly 80. She lived to see the Capitol be overthrown and got to know that she had a part in it.

 **Authors Note: Hi I know that in the book, the bombing of the dam in District 5 was never actually mentioned but I thought I'd include it anyway even though I'm trying to base this story more on the books than the films. xxx**


	16. 16th Hunger Games-Fuchsia(1st Volunteer)

16th Hunger Games

Winner: Fuchsia District 1

Up until now, District 1 and District 2 were considered to produce the best tributes and although the two districts had produced the most victors between them, they hadn't really earned the reputation that they had. Yes they had very strong tributes but they hadn't really shown anything special and they hadn't won many more times than anyone of the other tributes. So why did they still have this reputation?

The other districts feared District's 1 and 2 because their tributes just seemed more refined and polished; they seemed to know what they were doing before training. This was because District 1 and 2 had a secret, and everyone would find out about it this year.

The 16th Hunger Games had a particularly significant reaping because something happened that no one had expected…someone volunteered! It wasn't against the rules as the Gamemakers had included it when creating the idea of Hunger Games, to make the Districts feel like they had a say in the reapings. No one was actually expected to volunteer, it was just one of those rules that were there for decoration – to make the Capitol look kind and compassionate. And yet someone volunteered, and it wasn't to save the person who'd been reaped- they actually wanted to compete in the Hunger Games. But who was it?

The volunteer was a wealthy 18 year old boy from District 1 called Fuchsia. As soon as the boy who had been reaped from District 1 made it to the platform, Fuchsia darted out of the crowd and asked to volunteer. The escort didn't know what to do and demanded a rule book as she'd never heard of such a rule. For fifteen agonising minutes Fuschsia was left standing there while the boy who had been picked was made to stand in front of everyone, just in case he would still have to compete. Eventually it was decided that Fuchsia could volunteer as it was in the rule book but he was interviewed repeatedly in the Capitol and it was there that he revealed a secret of Districts 1 and 2.

In his many interviews, Fuchsia was constantly asked why he wanted to compete as the Hunger Games was supposed to be a punishment for the Districts – forcing their children to kill each other, and he, Fuchsia, was volunteering for this punishment.

Did he have a death wish? Was he mad? Did the boy that had originally been picked mean something to him?

The answer to all these questions were no, Fuchsia intended to win and he seemed so confident that the Capitol believed him and he soon became the favourite to win. He did an excellent job in training and the Gamemakers gave him an 11/12 which was the highest score this year by a long way.

The Capitol knew that Fuchsia was exceptionally talented but it seemed to be more than that, he seemed to know what he was doing with every single weapon on offer to the tributes. On the last night before the Games began, in a bid to gain more sponsors, Fuchsia admitted that he'd been training with weapons for the past few years so he could enter the Games. He only hoped to become popular but it had a huge effect on District's 1 and 2. After a bit of digging from the Capitol it was revealed that District 1 and 2 had a bitter rivalry to be the best district at the Hunger Games and both had opened a Training School for potential tributes. The Training School in District 1 had been set up by Fuchsia's uncle and Fuchsia had volunteered to see if the training he had been given was any use. All of this had happened behind the Capitol's back and now they knew, the other districts hoped that these Training Schools would be shut down. But they weren't. The Capitol loved that these two districts were actually training their children to kill children from other districts. So instead of putting a stop to the extra training, the Capitol allowed District 4 to open a Training School as well. District 4 didn't have the same reputation as District's 1 and 2 but they had won the same amount of Hunger Games so far as those two districts and they wanted to be just as strong as District 1 and District 2. This encouragement of the Training Schools from the Capitol was a disaster for the other districts; they would struggle to win once the tributes that had been trained started volunteering. They definitely wouldn't win this year if Fuchsia had been trained with weapons, yet it was too late for him to not participate.

Everyone knew that Fuchsia would probably win as long as nothing bad happened to him. However the arena that the Gamemakers had been planning to use wouldn't provide the Capitol with the spectacular fights they were expecting, so the arenas for the 16th and 17th Hunger Games were swapped so Fuchsia had a chance to show his talents. This was extremely biased towards Fuchsia but the Gamemakers had to prove that they'd made the right decision in letting Fuchsia compete.

The arena was an amphitheatre with huge sloping walls and the Cornucopia at one end. There was no escape. This meant that there would be lot of hand to hand combat which was extremely convenient for the Hunger Games that had the first volunteer.

When the gong went off all the tributes, seeing that they couldn't run or hide anywhere, swarmed towards the Cornucopia in the search weapons. With nearly all the tributes going for a weapon there was an enormous bloodbath. Fuchsia led this slicing his way through the other tributes with a sword and a shield. The Capitol could tell that he meant business; he didn't just blindly swing his sword at the tributes hoping to take off a leg or an arm, he always went for a direct kill by going for the chest and he nearly always landed a direct hit. Overall, Fuchsia had killed eight people by the end of the bloodbath and had only got a cut on one arm.

As the arena was an amphitheatre with no exit, it was going to be an extremely short Hunger Games and the Gamemakers had wanted to see if the Capitol preferred a short bloody Hunger Games to a long boring one. With Fuchsia being the first volunteer, this Hunger Games was only predicted to last a maximum of two days. Fuchsia was the ultimate killing machine up against tributes with nowhere near as much talent in fighting and they were all in an enclosed space. It couldn't possibly last long.

There was nowhere to hide as Fuchsia spent all night combing through the rows of seats looking for hiding tributes. A group of tributes did try to take Fuchsia on six to one but half of them panicked and fled and Fuchsia killed the rest. Some chose to hide under a seat in the hope they wouldn't be found by anyone but there was no escape. Some tributes accepted this and went out to meet him in the hope that they could be the one to kill Fuchsia. No one even got close.

After a day and a half, the 16th Hunger Games were finished and Fuchsia was the victor, having killed more than half the tributes himself. This Hunger Games was a huge lesson for the whole of Panem. The Capitol had been right to let Fuchsia compete and encouraged the opening of Training Schools, Districts 1 and 2 knew that their training would produce the strongest tributes, District 4 was determined to catch up to Districts 1 and 2 (but they wouldn't for several years) and the rest of the districts had to accept that they would probably never beat the tributes that volunteered on strength and skill with weapons alone.


	17. 17th Hunger Games- Barley

17th Hunger Games

Winner: Barley District 11

Following last years shocking reveal that Districts 1, 2, and now 4, had Training Schools which would give their tributes a huge advantage; the other districts knew that their tributes would never win. So they revolted. The other 9 districts demanded that the Hunger Games were changed so being trained with weapons wouldn't be an advantage. The Gamemakers were inclined to listen to them, they had to satisfy the districts in order to crush any thoughts of rebellion – the Capitol was still quite weak from the Uprising and could not afford another war. But what could the Gamemakers do? The Capitol loved the gore and death that weapons provided and in the previous games where the arena was the main enemy for the tributes, the Capitol had become bored with no gory deaths to look forward to. The weapons had to stay the main focus of the Hunger Games. Abolishing the Training Schools wasn't an option- the Capitol loved this new idea and the Gamemakers had already said that they were allowed as long as it wasn't publicised. The Hunger Games couldn't be changed.

However this still left the problem of the rebelling districts. The Gamemakers needed to change something as a compromise but what? Then it came to them. The 17th Hunger Games could be a one off non-weapon Hunger Games which would give the other districts a chance to win. This way the districts would be satisfied for another year and then they could go back to the way things usually were. As an added twist, the Gamemakers decided to only tell the district leaders to make them back down on the promise that no potential tribute would know before entering the arena.

The reaping went quite badly this year for some districts as the districts that had set up the volunteer system last year were finding it tricky not to reveal the non weapon rule for this year's games. After Fuchsia, last years victor, proved that the training scheme worked, lots of potential tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4 were eager to sign up for this year's Games. A complicated volunteering system was set up that no one but the district leaders seemed to understand which involved the tributes being voted in by the rest of the district. Naturally the best were chosen from all three districts but it was hard for the districts leaders to vote knowing that these really strong tributes would probably not win this year. In District 4 the leaders nearly told the secret as they knew that their strongest tributes should be saved for next year. District 4's Training School hadn't been running as long as Districts 1 and 2's had so they were determined to beat them to prove that their tributes were just as good.

Meanwhile in the other districts, the reaping went rather well as all of the district leaders were confident they could produce a winner and this made the atmosphere of the reaping a little bit more joyful than usual, especially when a strong looking 18 year old was called out. This happened in District 11 when an 18 year old boy called Barley was picked. The districts leaders could barely hide their excitement – Barley was well known for being one of the best workers in the fields and he was tipped to become the head farmer during the harvest, once he had left school. Barley could hardly fail to notice the growing excitement from the top people in District 11 once his name was called out and this gave him a lot of confidence which would be vital once he went up against the other tributes.

To make sure that the tributes didn't think that anything was particularly different about this year's Hunger Games, tributes were still allowed to work with weapons during training and the scores were still based on weaponry skills. Barley scored a mediocre 6 by using a spear as he hadn't found anything he was good at as of yet.

During the interview, Barley was too shy to really show any if his personality and he had no mentor to help him choose what image he wanted to put across (District 11 didn't have a victor yet). The Capitol were impressed by his silent approach as Barley did look incredibly strong but he only had an average training score and couldn't tell the interviewer what his strengths would be in the arena. Barley's newfound confidence had vanished within days.

The arena this year was originally an amphitheatre but the Gamemakers had swapped the arenas of the 16th and 17th Hunger Games to provide better entertainment for the Capitol after it was revealed that one of the tributes had been trained. This last minute arrangement had actually worked out better for the Gamemakers as it wouldn't have been right for the tributes to be in an amphitheatre with no weapons. So this year's arena was a long thin beach that stretched on for miles with strips of sea on both sides.

The Gamemakers had made it so the arena wouldn't have an effect on the tributes; there was plenty of food and drink as long as you liked coconuts. The Cornucopia was situated in the middle of the beach surrounded by palm trees. The arena was one of the most beautiful arenas that the Gamemakers had made so far.

When the gong sounded, as usual, several tributes ran into the Cornucopia to get weapons but a shocking sight met them. There weren't any! For a moment most of the tributes stood in the Cornucopia in shock – how were they supposed to kill each other now? There was definitely enough food and drink and the arena didn't seem very deadly. Nothing happened for a few moments, no one spoke and no one made any attempt to do anything until…

Bang!

The boy tribute from District 5 had taken the opportunity to strike out against one of the District 1 tributes by sneaking up behind them, grabbing them by the shoulders and banging their head against the Cornucopia. The loud bang attracted the other tributes attention and they all looked round to see the boy from District 1 lying in a pool of blood. His skull had smashed against the Cornucopia and he became the first casualty of the 17th Hunger Games.

The tributes quickly realised that that was how this Hunger Games was going to be played out. It would require brute force and strength to win and several of the tributes, realising that they would not be able to fight another tribute, ran away from the Cornucopia whilst before the real fighting could begin. Barely, however, was one of the ones who stayed. He now realised why the district leaders had been so pleased when he had been reaped; it was because he might have a chance of winning. He was strong- the whole of District 11 knew that, and if it came to it, he might be able to kill another tribute. He definitely had more chance that the tributes that had been trained with weapons.

The death of the boy from District 1 had started the bloodbath, only with a lot less of blood than normal. Tributes had to kill each other through strangling and hitting each other. Many followed the example of the boy from District 5 by trying to sneak up behind each other but this wasn't too successful as you couldn't really sneak up on someone in the middle of everyone fighting. Barley did very well in the fighting as he was so strong, there wasn't any tribute that was a worthy opponent for him. He was the tallest and the eldest and had worked long hours in the fields, weeding, so was able to strangle people quite easily. By the time the bloodbath was other he had refined his technique of strangling.

The beach was absolutely huge which would mean that any tribute that couldn't fight without weapons would have a good chance of hiding. Barley wasn't particularly vicious but wanted to survive so he found some shelter not far from the Cornucopia and decided he would stay there until there were only four or five tributes left. However if he saw tributes come past his shelter, he would try to kill them as he had promised himself he would do whatever it took to survive.

A few days into the games, Barley had killed quite a few other tributes but there were still six tributes left. Finally Barley decided that he couldn't wait around all day and that he would go and find the other tributes himself. It took him several hours but he eventually found all the other tributes. The last tribute was the girl from District 3 and she had been hiding since the bloodbath. She was quick and agile but she wasn't really a match for Barley and his skills and strength. She tried to run but only kept it up for about half a mile before she started to slow down. Barley, who was much older had better stamina, quickly caught up and grabbed her neck as she slowed down into a jog. In just a few seconds she was dead and Barley had won.

The Gamemakers agreed that this had satisfied the districts enough and starting next year, weapons would be back which would provide more entertainment for the Capitol. The districts with Training Schools hadn't done well this year but they would make terrific comeback over the next few years.


	18. 18th Hunger Games- Woof

18th Hunger Games

Winner: Woof District 8

For the first time since the beginning of the Hunger Games, the 18th Hunger Games saw a past victor being related to one of the tributes chosen in the reaping. The past victor was Stork from District 8 who won the 10th Hunger Games and 8 years later, his brother Woof was reaped and of course Stork was now too old to volunteer for him. However, District 8 was reasonably confident that they could produce another victor as Woof had the same genes and upbringing from District 8's first victor. And who would be a better mentor for him than his brother? The Capitol lapped this story up and assumed that Woof would be one of the best tributes in the arena even before the training scores were released.

By the 18th Hunger Games, every district had a mentor and the tributes relied on their mentors to help them. For the past eight years, Stork had been the sole mentor for District 8 and he had done reasonably well but hadn't managed to guide a tribute to victory. But now he had to mentor his brother and obviously he would try anything to make sure his brother came out alive. The girl from District 8 knew that Stork would favour his brother and therefore chose to try and get through the Games alone knowing that her mentor would gladly see her die in order to save his brother. This, of course, wasn't fair but when had the Hunger Games ever been fair?

Woof excelled in the training and proved that he was probably going to turn out to be a stronger tribute than Stork as Stork hadn't been very good with weapons and had preferred to use snares. However Woof was pretty decent with nearly every single weapon and he caught the eye of the Gamemakers (who gave him an 8) and, most importantly, the other tributes.

As usual the tributes from District 1 and 2 were quite strong and they had formed a group together which would turn into an alliance once the Games started. Over the past few years, District 1 and 2 had produced the majority of strong tributes but they hadn't won as many times as they wanted to, owing to the arena tripping them up or other tributes outwitting them. This year was different. Normally the four tributes from District 1 and 2 kept together as a group until one or two of them died, no one else could join their little alliances, but this year the four tributes decided to ask Woof to join in an alliance with them. This was a great opportunity for Woof as he wouldn't have to go out into the arena without anyone to help him and he would have some protection, at least for as long as the alliance stayed together. So of course he accepted- even if he hadn't wanted to, Stork would've made him join them anyway.

The arena this year was created to make sure that this years Games were short and sweet. It was the Presidents twin sons 18th birthday just after the Games and the President didn't want the Capitol to not have time to prepare for the celebrations. So the arena was almost like a desert. It was a barren land that was covered a red dust with the occasional sand dune dotted here and there; unlike most arenas, there weren't even small bushes to hide away in. If you couldn't fight you were dead.

When the gong sounded, the bloodbath went into full swing as many tributes had realised there was nowhere to hide so they might as well fight and try and get their hands on some weapons. The tributes from District 1 and 2 along with Woof got through the bloodbath with only minor injuries but with an awful lot of blood on their hands. Stork was beside himself with joy- his brother had survived the bloodbath and was part of the team that would now go and kill all the other tributes; and the girl from District 8 was dead meaning he didn't have to look out for her anymore.

Meanwhile Woof was feeling pretty pleased, to say he was in the Hunger Games, as he knew that he was protected by the alliance, for now. However the time would come when he would have try and fight the tributes from District 1 and 2 if he wanted to survive. But what Woof didn't know was that Stork was determined that Woof would stay alive.

The rest of the Game went reasonably smoothly for the Gamemakers except from an angry outburst five days into the Games from one of the Presidents sons demanding that the Gamemakers hurry the games along because he was promised a televised interview on his ideas for his upcoming party. But all the Gamemakers could say to this was that they would make sure that the alliance didn't have any problems in eliminating the other tributes until they were the only five tributes left. So the alliance was able to kill at least eleven tributes before problems arose.

Now unlike the tributes from District 1 and District 2, Woof wasn't bloodthirsty but he had to kill so he wouldn't get kicked out of the alliance. Also he felt that he had to live up to his brothers reputation and make sure he wouldn't just be known as Stork's brother. So Woof was brutal and ruthless to the other tributes and he did it quite well. He would pierce tributes throats with arrows, their hearts with blades and smash their heads in with axes. But even after all this; Woof wouldn't stand a chance against the tributes from Districts 1 and 2. He was reasonably good but they were amazing. They just about ignored Woof but he preferred it that way, he'd rather not know the people that he would have to go against in a few days time. He knew which districts they came from and that was good enough for him – he'd always struggled with names anyway. And so when all the tributes had been killed, except for the alliance, he would break away and work out what to do next then. Maybe he could kill them in their sleep - that had worked for the winner of the 14th Games so it could work for him.

Woof wasn't the only one who knew that the alliance was coming to an end; Stork knew and was determined that Woof would win, whatever it took. But Woof just was now the weakest tribute out there concerning weaponry so he would have to try and outsmart the other tributes. Or he could always get a little help.

The whole of District 8 were behind Woof, he was by far their favourite tribute that had been reaped so Stork hoped they would be willing to help him in saving his brother.

Back in the arena, Woof had just killed another tribute- a strong 18 year old boy from District 9. That was it. There was only the alliance left now. Seconds after the cannon went off, the four other tributes turned on each other and Woof hoped he would be able to just slip away. No such luck. The girl from District 2 noticed his retreat and arrows began to rain down on Woof as he tried to get away. At this rate he was bound to get hit sooner or later. But if he went back he'd be heading towards his death. No Woof had to keep running. Suddenly in amidst the chaos and flying arrows, a faint tinkling sound came from above and a silver parachute landed in front of Woof. He had been sent a gift. Arrows were still raining down, but they weren't as often as the girl from District 2 was beginning to tire. This gave Woof time to open the parachute and read the message that his brother had sent him. It was a bomb! Stork had pratically had to find a loophole for nearly every rule in the book to send Woof this but he had. District 8 had contributed using some of Storks winnings and the rest was from sponsors. Stork had anticipated that Woof would make a run for it and he hoped that the other four tributes would stay close together so they could all be killed in the same explosion. Luckily for Woof they had.

Woof didn't have time to consider whether it was cheating if he wanted to stay alive. He grabbed the bomb and chucked it as hard as he could towards the four tributes praying that it wouldn't get struck by an arrow before it got there. Time seemed to stop as the whole of Panem watched the bomb fly through the air…

Boom!

Four cannons went off one after the other.

The bomb had worked. Woof was the victor.

The Capitol weren't happy with the use of the bomb but it was a little late now and Stork had made sure that there wasn't a rule that could be used against him. So the Gamemakers made a new rule – modern weapons weren't allowed in the arena.

But it didn't matter to Stork as his brother was alive and had won his own Hunger Games.

It would be nice to say that the brothers had a happy ending after that but sadly they didn't. In the explosion Woof had suffered an internal head injury after the force of the impact but he chose not to say anything. At first it didn't affect him except for bad headaches but as the years went on, his mental health deteriorated rapidly. Stork had helped his brother to survive but had neglected the other District 8 tribute to do so. The girl's family were mad with grief and chose to blame it on Stork for not doing everything he could to help her. Once the brothers returned to District 8, the girls family invited Stork round for a drink to show there were no hard feelings. They poisoned his cup and he died within days. There were never happy endings for the survivors of the Hunger Games.


	19. 19th Hunger Games- Fern

19th Hunger Games

Winner: Fern District 7

Ever since the 16th Hunger Games when the first tribute volunteered, there had been a steady stream of tributes volunteering but only from Districts 1 and 2. District 4 now had a Training Centre as well but was biding its time to produce a tribute that could definitely go and win. But when the 19th Hunger Games began, District 4 wasn't quite ready so it was expected that there would only be volunteers from Districts 1 and 2 as there had been for the past three years. However an unexpected volunteer entered the Games this year and she wasn't from a district with a Training School; she was from District 7.

When it was time for the reaping in District 7, everything was in order; there wasn't a mention of anyone volunteering. In the districts without Training Schools, volunteering would be stupid and dangerous and was frowned upon. No one had attempted it yet. As always the girls name was called out first and this year for District 7 it was…

"Ava Daney"

There was seemingly a small disturbance where Ava Daney was stood and the District 7 escort called the name out two more times before finally a tall willowy girl made her way up onto the platform. She was crying. The escort clapped her hands and asked that the whole district wish good luck to Ava. It wasn't until the escort said her name that the girl spoke

"I'm not Ava Daney. I'm her twin Fern Daney and I volunteer as tribute."

Silence fell as everyone came to terms with this. Nearly the whole of District 7 hadn't realised that the identical twins had swapped. The escort faltered, obviously not sure what to do as this had never happened in District 7 before. Eventually the spell was broken as the escort, choosing to ignore the disruption in her perfectly planned reaping, tried to carry on as nothing had happened and went over to pick the boys name out.

"Aran Ebonwood"

Unfortunately for Aran, he didn't have a sibling willing to volunteer so he had to take his place next to Fern. It was clear that the escort had been thrown off her game with the misunderstanding with the twins because she didn't say anything else and instead whisked the two tributes away before the camera got a good look in. The Capitol chose to nickname the tributes from District 7 'the mysterious duo' which suited them perfectly.

In training, Aran and Fern proved to be very good with weapons and it now became clear why Fern had volunteered for her twin if not for love. She was strong, quick and excellent with a sword and shield; she must've known she had a better chance than her twin. Meanwhile Aran had proved himself a worthy tribute with a spear but the weapon he excelled with was a knife. In the Gamemaker evaluation, Fern got an 8 but Aran got a 10 which was the joint highest score along with the girl from District 1 and the boy from District 2. Between Fern volunteering and Aran's high training score, District 7 became the favourite district in the Capitol by a long way and people were queuing up to help them before they'd even entered the arena. It made sense for them to work together in the arena as the Capitol would love their favourite tributes to team up and the District 7 mentor Maia intended to try to form an alliance between them. Fern immediately agreed but the District 1 and 2 tributes had got to Aran first. He had already agreed to join an alliance with them and wouldn't trade it for Fern or ask if Fern could join the alliance with him. So Fern would just have to go into the arena friendless.

The arena this year was a rough land with huge chasms and cracks in the ground. The sky was blood red and the rivers were full of polluted water which would kill the tributes that hadn't collected fresh clean water from the Cornucopia which was in plentiful supply. And there would be constant earthquakes about every hour or so - some minor, some deadly.

During the bloodbath that happened at the beginning of every Hunger Games, the Capitol would forget about their favourites as the prospect of bloodshed was much more exciting. It was after the fallen tributes had been shown that the sponsors really committed themselves to a tribute that was still alive. This was why the Capitol didn't realise that Fern and Aran weren't actually an alliance until after the bloodbath when they had both gone their separate ways. This left a lot of people in the Capitol in a predicament as they had to decide which one to sponsor. Fern or Aran?

In the end most people in the Capitol backed Fern as she was all by herself compared to Aran who had the tributes from District 1 and District 2 as well as the fact that was Fern was the first volunteer not from District 1 or 2. The District 7 mentor made the decision that every mentor had to and chose Fern as the tribute that she would help to survive. But for a few days Fern received no sign that she had sponsors. She'd taken a few supplies from the Cornucopia and had a sword, food and water meaning that she'd been alright for a few days having had only one run in with a tribute that she'd promptly killed. But so far the earthquakes had only been minor and it was going to get a lot worse.

The earthquakes didn't start until the second day of the Games and they weren't yet strong enough to do any damage. But the tributes had noticed when the ground suddenly started to shake and it had given the Capitol entertainment to watch the tributes try to work out what was going on. However, eventually the surviving tributes got used to the occasional shaking of the ground and it didn't bother them anymore, unless it woke them up at night. It was just as the remaining tributes were settling down when the first real earthquake came.

It came just before nightfall when most of the tributes were just settling down for the night. It started as a shaking in the ground just like it had been over the past few days. Then there was a distant rumbling which got louder and louder until… Bangs! Cracks appeared all over the already chasm-filled ground and swallowed up earth and tributes alike. Rocks rained down and killed the tributes that had realised what was going on and had tried to run. The tributes that found a hiding place under a rock somewhere where the ones to survive. But what had happened to the Capitols favourite tribute Fern? Had she survived?

Fortunately she had. Fern had been in a small cave when the earthquake hit so she had just managed to avoid the falling rocks. Her fans and sponsors in the Capitol were relieved but they wanted to guarantee her survival in case there was another earthquake. Sponsors came flooding in and the morning after the earthquake, Fern received a huge metal shield which would protect her from rocks. She could also use it in fights against other tributes but not many survived after the first earthquake and it was clear that the arena would be the main killer for the rest of the Games.

Over the next few days, tributes began dropping like flies as there were several major earthquakes that came with no warning in the day and in the night. If they weren't hidden away when the earthquakes hit they would die but hiding away wouldn't give the tributes access to water or food. It also wouldn't protect them from other tributes, mainly Fern. With her shield, she could go out without fear of being hit by a fallen rock and if she met any tribute along the way, she now had a sword and a shield to kill with. Within a few days the rest of the tributes had either been killed by the earthquakes and Fern had killed four that were hidden in caves. Fern was the victor of the 19th Hunger Games.


	20. 20th Hunger Games- Aqua

20th Hunger Games

Winner: Aqua District 4

Ever since the Training Schools were opened in District 1, 2 and 4, District 4 would've liked to consider themselves as one of the strongest districts in the Hunger Games but unfortunately they weren't as good as District 1 and 2…until now.

Unlike District 1 and 2, District 4 hadn't sent out its strongest tributes as soon as the Training School opened. Instead it bided its time and waited a few years until they were confident that the tributes that were sent out would win. By the 20th Hunger Games they had waited long enough so they sent out two 18 year olds who had been training for the past four years. They were called Aqua and Zale.

The Capitol took real notice of the pair from District 4 as it was well known that they were the main competition this year. Further still, the other tributes had noticed their potential rivals as well and some of the stronger tributes wanted an alliance. These stronger tributes, as always, were the tributes from District 1 and 2. As District 4 were so keen to be considered by the Capitol as one of the strongest tributes, they encouraged their own tributes to make alliances with District 1 and 2 so Aqua and Zale happily accepted the alliance.

During the training, Aqua and Zale proved to be good with all the weapons as they had already been trained for the past four years. However, like the tributes from District 1 and 2, they ignored the survival stations which they would later come to regret. But for now they were doing well and they got excellent training scores which interested the Capitol and made sure that District 4 was a strong favourite to win.

The arena this year was a boggy marshland but the water only came up to the tributes knees so it wasn't necessary for the tributes to be able to swim. However the bog water wasn't fresh so tributes would have to take any water they could get from the Cornucopia.

When the gong went off the bloodbath commenced with the tributes from District 4 leading the way. Their training proved to give them a huge advantage and they were relentless with their weapons, Aqua with a sword and shield and Zale with a bow and arrow. They were doing a good job of proving that District 4 was just as good as District 1 and 2. As the bloodbath ended, the alliance joined together and started to make a plan over how the six of them were going to try and win. They decided that they would make camp around the Cornucopia and wait for the other tributes to come to them. This worked for a few days and it meant that alliance didn't have to waste any energy, occasionally taking it in turns to go out and kill some unsuspecting tribute dying of thirst.

After a few days the other tributes became wiser and didn't just wander out into open air by the Cornucopia anymore. Instead they came in the dead of night or sneaked round and some even relied on sponsors. As a result, the alliance had no choice but to go and hunt for the remaining tributes. Aqua and Zale had been told not to leave the alliance as they could both take any of tributes from District 1 or 2. But soon they would have no choice but to leave.

The Capitol was getting bored. The Games were getting predictable ever since District 1 and 2 started making alliances. These Games were no different and the Capitol didn't want to have to watch the alliance hunt down the other tributes and then kill each other. So to make things more interesting the Gamemakers decided to take advantage of the amount of water in the arena and create a flood.

It was the middle of the night when the water suddenly started to climb rapidly. As the alliance had been hunting tributes all day, they weren't that near the Cornucopia which hadn't been covered by water yet, so they had to try and swim there as fast as they could. This was alright for Aqua and Zale as they were from District 4 but the tributes from District 1 couldn't swim at all and the tributes from District 2 couldn't swim quickly enough. They were washed away by the current and Aqua and Zale did nothing about it. They managed to climb the Cornucopia before the water got too high to swim and listened to the seemingly endless cannon booms as all the other tributes were wiped out. One half-drowned tribute did try to reach the Cornucopia but Aqua killed her before she had started to climb. By the time the water went down, there were only four tributes left; the girl from District 6, the boy from District 11, Aqua and Zale. This was a disaster for the Gamemakers as they hadn't meant to kill so many tributes as the Games had only been going for a week.

Aqua and Zale were by far the best tributes out of the four that were left so they felt that they should hunt the other two down. The problem was that the tributes from District 6 and 10 decided to hide from them, knowing that they wouldn't stand a chance in a fight. So Aqua and Zale had to take all their supplies from the Cornucopia to go and hunt them down. But as the days went by, the food supply started to dwindle and soon Aqua and Zale had to try and get food from their surroundings. Unfortunately, neither of them had bothered learning survival skills so they couldn't hunt and, more importantly, they couldn't tell the difference between plants they could eat and plants they couldn't. So it was only a matter of time before one of them ate something they shouldn't and two days into their search it was Zale. Out of desperation for food, he'd taken a risk and eaten a mushroom that turned out to be poisonous. He died within minutes which left Aqua on her own to hunt down the other two tributes.

With Zale gone, Aqua found that she covered ground more easily as she didn't dare rest when there was no one to guard her. It was only day after Zale had been poisoned when Aqua found the other two tributes. They had both joined together in the hope that if Aqua did find them, between the two of them, they could overpower her. They underestimated the training that Aqua had been given. With her sword and shield, she could easily kill two inexperienced tributes with spears. She slit the girl from District 6's throat and the boy from District 11 received a sword in the stomach. Aqua was the victor of the 20th Hunger Games and District 4 could finally take their place alongside District 1 and 2 as they had proved that their training worked.

It was the District 3 mentor that came up with the term 'Career tributes' and the other districts took to using it as well to describe the tributes who had training. District 1 and 2 finally acknowledged that District 4 took the Hunger Games just as seriously as they did and from now on District 4 was welcome to join the alliance between District 1 and 2.


	21. 21st Hunger Games- Hydro

21st Hunger Games

Winner: Hydro District 5

As the Hunger Games still hadn't been going for that long, the Gamemakers could still get things wrong when trying to make the Games more exciting for the Capitol. Sometimes they killed too many tributes at once and sometimes the deaths of the tributes weren't gory or exciting, leaving the Capitol feeling bored. The 21st Hunger Games was one of those Games where the Gamemakers messed it up. This was good news for the victor though because this year's arena played to his strengths.

After District 4's win last year, it was no surprise to anyone when the Career Districts joined together in an alliance as soon as they met after the reaping. This left the other tributes to try and find someone to partner up with, unless they didn't want and ally. The District 5 boy tribute, Hydro, desperately wanted an ally because he was awful with weapons. He was 15 and extremely weak and skinny for his age, even though he was reasonably well fed, being an only child. Back at home, he was very shy and didn't really have any friends. The girl tribute from District 5 had ignored him and most of the other tributes did as well. Some were friendly but none wanted him as an ally in the arena. Hydro didn't blame them, the only weapon he was any good with was the bow and arrow and even then he'd only scored a 5 in the Gamemaker evaluation. Hopes weren't high for Hydro as he wasn't very good at the survival stations either so if he wasn't killed by another tribute, he would probably die of thirst or hunger or would be poisoned by unknown food growing in the arena. No one expected him to survive for more than a few days.

The arena this year was an endless forest where it was constantly snowing. Good news in that there'd be lots of food and water. Bad news in that half the tributes would freeze to death. Before the Games had even started, the snow already reached above the tributes ankles. When the gong went off, it took a while for the bloodbath to start because the tributes had to trek through the snow to get to the weapons. There were barely any swords and knives but there were a lot of bows and arrows as with this amount of snow, the tributes wouldn't be moving very fast so there wouldn't be much hand to hand combat. Hydro didn't bother to try and get to the Cornucopia. Instead he digged around in the snow near his podium, found some food supplies and a bundle of wood and set off into the forest.

Once the bloodbath was over, the tributes began to realise that they would desperately need to keep warm as it was nearing night and it was still snowing. The Gamemakers had wanted it to be cold and maybe kill a few tributes off but they had made it too cold and now there was a real danger of all the tributes dying in one night. Fortunately for the Gamemakers around half the tributes that were left survived the night because they could all light fires. The Career tributes, who would normally go hunt the other tributes, were too busy trying to light a fire to go out hunting so the other tributes were safe to light their fires…if they could get it going. There had been lots of wood in the Cornucopia so nearly all the tributes had the means to light a fire but a lot of them didn't know how which is why many died that night. The Career tributes got a fire going but it was so small that they all began to argue about who should stand around it and they ended up fighting and the two District 2 tributes were both killed. This was bad for the other Career tributes as District 2 were the only ones in the alliance that had actually got the fire going.

Meanwhile Hydro was doing well. He had got a huge fire going easily and it showed no signs of dying out. Being from District 5, he had experience with creating heat and as the girl from District 5 had died in the bloodbath, Hydro was now one of the favourites to win.

Over the next few days, the snow got heavier and heavier and tributes dropped like flies. The problem was that even if they could get a fire going, it would either be too small and get put out by the snow or another tribute would try to steal it. The remains of the Career tributes died within two days as they just couldn't light a fire and the ones they tried to steal weren't strong enough. Hydro had a roaring fire but no one came to steal it because as he was able to light fires easily, Hydro just put it out every time another tribute came past. He was now the only tributes that wasn't on the verge of freezing to death.

The Capitol was really disappointed with these Games. There had barely been any fighting and the fighting that had occurred was over fires! The Gamemakers hadn't thought the arena through at all but they couldn't change it once it had been revealed to the tributes. If the tributes had been given better clothing perhaps, then it might've lasted longer but they had been given the same tribute uniform that they always used. So to make the Games a bit more exciting if an arena like this was ever created again, the clothes that the tributes wore became different every year to accommodate to the arena whether it was a desert or a snow storm.

This new clothing was a good idea but it wouldn't help the tributes that were out there at the moment. It was only six days into the Games and there were now only two tributes left, one of which was Hydro. Hydro was reasonably warm as he had his fire but the other remaining tribute, the boy tribute from District 7, had been stealing other peoples fires. As Hydro kept putting out his fire, the boy from District 7 was unable to find any warmth and died. Hydro was the victor but barely got any recognition for it.

The Capitol was much more interested in the sacking of the Head Gamemaker and the appointment of a new one. The new Head Gamemaker would avoid freezing temperatures for now but like every other Head Gamemaker to come, he would eventually try it in the hope that he could do a better job. No Head Gamemaker ever made a snowy arena hugely successful even though there were many attempts.


	22. 22nd Hunger Games- Elektra

22nd Hunger Games

Winner: Elektra District 3

The 22nd Hunger Games was one of the few Hunger Games where the victor used brains to win instead of weapons, although in this case, the victor used a combination of both. It was the Gamemakers fault – once again they made the arena too extreme so the tributes had to struggle to try and stay alive before they could even consider killing anyone else.

Despite not being a Career tribute, Elektra caused a bit of a stir at the Capitol because she was blind in one eye so she would be at a disadvantage to everyone else. However, the Capitol decided that Elektra wasn't a serious contender so it hardly mattered; besides she could still see, even if it was only through one eye. 17 year old Elektra was quite small for her age but surprisingly, she didn't focus on the survival stations like all the other weak tributes did. She practised at the weapon stations proving to be reasonably good with an axe and knife. Elektra scored a 6 from the private evaluation.

The arena this year was a mountain range with high winds and treacherous paths that the tributes could use to get around. On one hand the arena provided lots of shelter in caves along the mountain tops but on the other hand, food would become a huge problem for the tributes.

The Capitol tried something different this year and decided to spread the tributes out much more than usual so only the ones who wanted to fight would have to get involved in the bloodbath. There were ample supplies dotted around each tribute if they wanted to make a quick getaway and that is what most of them chose to do.

Elektra didn't join the bloodbath but she did linger near the Cornucopia for longer than most of the other tributes because she wanted to gather as much food as she possibly could so once she went into the mountains, she didn't have to come back. The choice to stay behind resulted in her having to kill a tribute with a knife she had picked up. After she has taken as much food as she could carry, Elektra made of into the mountains to get as far away from everyone else as possible. After a few miles, Elektra decided that her best bet at survival would be to get as high as possible. So she picked one of the tallest mountains and began to climb. By the time she got near the top, night had fallen so she found a cave and settled down for the night.

Elektra had succeeded in getting away from all the other tributes as not many of them had chosen to climb all the way to the top of a mountain and the ones that had had picked other mountains closer to the Cornucopia. Consequently, Elektra was left alone for the next few days and didn't receive any attacks whatsoever. In fact, hardly any tributes were attacked during the first few days of the Games because food had become a huge problem for all of them. The only animals were birds and tributes who had taken rucksacks from the Cornucopia found that they only contained three or four day's worth of provisions. Elektra, however, had enough provisions to last her for about a week and a half and that was if she ate a decent amount everyday. But she barely ate anything and saved up a huge amount of food that none of the other tributes knew about.

It was five days into the Games and four tributes had died of starvation already, when Elektra did something that baffled the Capitol. She started giving food away! Elektra would head down her mountain and leave a tiny amount of food down there before climbing back up again. The Capitol was completely lost. Did Elektra not understand the aim of the Hunger Games? Did she want to help other tributes survive? What the Capitol hadn't realised was that Elektra was creating a trap. She was trying to lure tributes up the mountain where she could kill them. And it worked.

A few hours after Elektra left some food out, the girl tribute from District 12 came across it and, as she hadn't eaten all day, she ate it. Then she saw that there was more food higher up the mountain. It must have fallen out of another tributes rucksack. The girl from District 12 scampered up the mountain in search of more food. But she wasn't stupid and as she got nearer the top of the mountain, drew her sword out and proceeded with caution. Eventually the girl from District 12 reached the top and saw Elektra standing there. They stared at each other for a moment before Elektra charged at the girl who had a sword in one hand and two apples in the other. Elektra slammed all her weight into the girl and the apples went rolling off the side of the mountain…along with Elektra's knife and the other tributes sword!

The girl from District 12 had managed to wrench the knife out of Elektra's hand but she had dropped her sword in the process. The girls tumbled onto the ground and rolled around in the dirt, each trying to press their fingers around the other girl's throat. Elektra was the stronger of the two and managed to pin the other girl to the ground and slowly squeezed the life out of her until the cannon fired.

This had proved that Elektra's plan to lure tributes towards her with food would work but she had lost her weapon in the process so she now had no way to fight them. The Capitol had been impressed with the idea and disappointed that it had fallen through but Elektra wasn't finished yet. The next day she left food out as before but this time when a tribute reached the top, they were met with the remains of a fire. No food. No Elektra.

Elektra's next victim, the boy from District 7, had an axe in hand but had no one to attack. Suddenly he felt a weight hit him from behind and he was pushed towards the edge of the mountain. He fought but his feet slipped from under him and he stumbled, letting his attacked push him over the edge. His screams echoed for what seemed like hours as he fell until the cannon eventually fired. Elektra had hidden when the tribute had appeared and then sneaked up behind him and pushed him from behind. She wasn't particularly strong but she was strong enough and she had the advantage of catching her victim unaware.

As the tributes starved, more and more were lured by the food. They were all so weak and starving that it was all too easy for Elektra to push them off the mountain. As the Games came to an end, Elektra had more than one tribute a day but she herself was becoming weak as she was using just about all her food to kill the other tributes. The Hunger Games was becoming a battle of exhaustion.

On the final day, the last tribute came staggering up the mountain having eaten all the food that was laid out for them. It was the boy from District 1 as even the Career tributes had been starving. Maybe he knew it was a trap but he was starving so he might as well try to end it. He came carrying a weapon but it was really no use as he was stumbling around from hunger and exhaustion and nearly took himself off the mountain by accident before Elektra even came out of her hiding place. It was over in a matter of minutes.

Once again, the Gamemakers had got it wrong. Their idea of a perfect Hunger Games never seemed to go to plan even though the Capitol didn't normally notice when the Gamemakers messed up. This time there simply hadn't been enough food. Even tributes who risked going back to the Cornucopia came away empty handed. The birds disappeared after a few days as the Gamemakers didn't want tributes with a bow and arrow to have any advantage other the others. But in the end there had been bloodshed and that was all that mattered to the Capitol.


	23. 23rd Hunger Games- Jackleigh

23rd Hunger Games

Winner: Jackleigh District 4

For the past few years, the Gamemakers had done a terrific job with the arenas; they were creative and exciting. The only problem was that the arena was a bigger killer than the actual tributes themselves. This should've been a problem but the Capitol loved the arenas and would even go as far as to make them into museums. Besides, with the Quarter Quell coming up, the Gamemakers had more than enough to deal with so the dramatic arenas continued. This year's arena would leave even the victor broken.

District 4 had been invited into the alliance between Districts 1 and 2 a few years ago now but they had only won once since then. In fairness, Districts 1 and 2 hadn't won since then either but they already had the reputation. District 4 needed to earn its own reputation as one of the 'Career Districts'. This year's tributes for District 4 were fresh out of training and ready to go. They had been advised by their mentors to join the alliance with Districts 1 and 2 as the other District 4 tributes had done for the past few years but the tributes this year would find that a lot harder than usual. Of course, they could all agree to form an alliance during training but nothing was definite till the Games began.

This year's arena was tough. It was an abandoned city with huge skyscrapers and overhead wires hanging everywhere. There was plenty of food and water inside the remains of shops and when that ran out, the tributes could always eat the rats that were hidden away down the sewers. The arena was the perfect place for archers and as the Career tributes had been trained with all weapons, they were at a huge advantage already. But there were some other tributes who favoured a bow and arrow if they could get their hands on them so the Career tributes would have to be on their guard.

When the gong went off, there weren't many tributes that went to the Cornucopia because if they found a decent hiding place, they wouldn't need a weapon. This meant that there were plenty of long-range weapons to go around and the Career tributes were unable to go after any of them in the fear of being struck dead by arrows. This year no one made the Cornucopia their main base, not even the Career tributes. Everyone claimed a building of their own and either found a place to hide or set up their weapons to target anyone stupid enough to go out into the open. Then…nothing.

For quite a few days, no one moved and no one died. The Capitol was bored and the last thing the Gamemakers wanted was for the Capitol to be bored. But still nothing happened. The Gamemakers had a plan and they were willing to risk the wrath of the President for it to work. It wasn't until the President threatened the Head Gamemakers life that the plan was put into action.

It was midday when it came. The sun was at its highest point and was shining brightly so the tributes didn't suspect that anything was wrong. Suddenly clouds rolled in but these weren't ordinary clouds. Thick black clouds covered the whole sky, blotting out the sun entirely. Some of the tributes noticed the sudden darkness, but after all, they were only clouds so the worst that could happen was a storm. They were right, in a way but this wasn't any ordinary storm.

First came the thunder. Huge booms that echoed through the arenas and deafened the tributes. Then came the rain. It came down like bullets drenching even the tributes who were inside the abandoned buildings. But then the rain got worse, it got hot. Starting from a mildly warm temperature, the rain got hotter and hotter until it was unbearable to touch. After a few minutes the rain turned to fire. It burst through the derelict buildings and instantly scorched anything in its path. But it didn't just go through buildings; it went through tributes as well. When the rain had become heavier, the few tributes that were still outside retreated inside but bricks wouldn't be enough to save them from the engineered fire that the Gamemakers had created. Any tribute that was hit by the rain would instantly lose that part of skin and would be in agony for a long time, meaning they were more likely to be burnt again. Over the next hour, the rain continued to come down, heavier in some places than others and the tributes scurried around like rats trying to avoid it. If you were hit in the right place, you could die and quite a few tributes did. Finally after about an hour and a half of panic, the rain stopped and the tributes were safe once more. But the fire rain would be back and it would probably be even worse the second time round.

Whilst it was raining, the Career tributes were split up into the two District 1 tributes and Jackleigh and both District 2 tributes with the girl from District 4. They had both gone into different buildings once the fire rain had started and didn't bother to try and regroup when it became safe to go outside. But there was still a threat of the fire coming back and most of the tributes had realised this. Burnt out buildings wouldn't protect them this time but where else could they go?

But there was hope.

The sewers weren't being affected by the rain, if the tributes could find an entrance, they would be safe. Unfortunately quite a lot of the remaining tributes had this idea including both of the Career groups.

The sewers may have been safe, but they were small and cramped and there weren't many entrances meaning that quite a lot of tributes ran into each other, which resulted in many fights breaking out in the sewers. Most of the tributes had long range weapons that they'd barely used so many tributes died from arrows in the neck or a spear in the side. One of the fights that caught the Capitols interest was the one between the Career tributes. Both groups had gone inside the sewers through different entrances but hadn't stayed where they were so it was inevitable that they would meet. The District 1 tributes were the first to start it. Hearing the footsteps of another large group of tributes, they turned on Jackleigh who actually did a pretty good job of holding them off, suffering only a flesh wound to the shoulder. When the other half of the Career tributes found them, they rushed in to help Jackleigh as the District 1 tributes had broken the alliance. The girl from District 4 took out the boy from District 1 with a few well placed arrows to the stomach and heart and the other two went for the girl from District 1. She put up a good fight and managed to badly wound the girl from District 2 with her spear before she died from a spear to her stomach. As the girl from District 1 died, the girl from District 2 was trying to stay alive but with a spear in her side, she suffered from severe blood loss and couldn't manage to hold on for more than a few minutes.

The Capitol assumed that this would be the end of the bloodshed for now but no one expected the remaining Careers to turn on each other. The remaining District 2 tribute had just lost his partner and blamed the District 4 tributes for her death, he didn't feel they'd tried hard enough to save her. Seeing red, he grabbed his bow and arrow but before he could even put an arrow in place, the girl from District 4 had shot him with her own arrow. All but two of the Career pack had been killed within fifteen minutes.

The Gamemakers could've left the District 4 tributes to patch themselves up and everyone expected them to go and focus on one of the other remaining tributes. But the Hunger Games had never been fair on anyone so why should any tribute believe they might be left in peace. In the sewers, the tributes were safe from the fire rain, so the Gamemakers decided to bring the fire rain to them.

They didn't notice it at first when the air suddenly began to get very hot inside the sewers. Then the whole sewage system burst into flame.

Tributes scrambled out from where they had settled down to try and get back up to the surface. The District 4 tributes were still weak from the Career's fight and struggled to get going. They ran together, Jackleigh in front, the girl lagging behind. Suddenly Jackleigh heard a scream, turned round and saw that she was gone. The girl from District 4 had been swallowed by the flames and if Jackleigh didn't get going, he would be as well.

Half the tributes that had made it down into the sewers were engulfed by the fire that no one had been expecting. However, for the ones who made it to the top, there would be little time to rest. Jackleigh had made it to the surface with minor burns on both his legs. He was just about to sit down to see what he could do about them when it began to rain. Like all the other tributes, Jackleigh ran for his life but there wasn't really anywhere to go as none of the tributes were anywhere near a building strong enough to withstand the fire. Howls and screams echoed across the arena as the rain came into contact with skin. Already suffering burns, Jackleigh really struggled to keep going when the rain touched his legs. It was agony but he had to keep going. Jackleigh had always been a fast runner and he had been trained for years so he just managed to make it to a safe building. His legs were in a really bad way and it was unlikely he would make it through the night, so he had to hope that no other tribute would make it. It felt like hours had passed watching the rain and listening to the screams but no one came and Jackleigh was declared the victor just before he passed out in pain.

The doctors took him into surgery immediately and they managed to save his life, but not his legs. With the burns Jackleigh had received, it was easier to amputate both legs. After recovering, Jackleigh was well enough to go on the Victory Tour and then begin life as a mentor. But he didn't last very long and died a few years after his own Games at the age of 25. This year even the victor barely survived so the Gamemakers had to down-play the arenas for a while afterwards.


	24. 24th Hunger Games- Silena

24th Hunger Games

Winner: Silena District 2

The 24th Hunger Games was significant as it saw the goriest and biggest bloodbath in the Hunger Games so far. The Gamemakers weren't sure whether to consider it a success or a failure as there wasn't much they could do to make the Games more interesting, considering that half the tributes had died on the first day. The Gamemakers couldn't afford to have a huge killing spree so instead they brought something different in. The 24th Hunger Games hosted the first feast for the tributes.

After the tragic Career alliance last year, the tributes from Districts 2 and 4 weren't willing to make an alliance and decided they would go off by themselves. The tributes from District 4 decided they would stay together but the tributes from District 2 chose to be completely alone and not have anything to do with each other. It was the girl, Silena, that decided this; she had watched the 23rd Hunger Games and had decided that if she ever went into the arena, she wouldn't trust anyone, not even the other tribute from her district.

The arena this year was reasonably simple after the Gamemakers exerted themselves last year. It was a valley with the Cornucopia situated on a large hill. There were plenty of animals to eat and plenty of water. All the tributes could see that no one was going to die due to the arena so they were going to need weapons to defend themselves. So when the gong sounded, nearly every tribute raced towards the Cornucopia to grab weapons, which were all deep inside the Cornucopia, there weren't any lying about on the outskirts. Within a minute of the Games starting, a full battle had begun and there would be many casualties. Despite not being in an alliance, the Career tributes dominated the arena with their swords and spears. They cut down anyone that was trying to get away by throwing knives and shooting arrows in every direction. After all the other tributes had died or fled, there was a moment when the Careers seemed to stop – it wasn't too late to make an alliance. Silena broke the silence by running off down the hill, which encouraged the other Careers to head off by themselves as well. The bloodbath was over and thirteen tributes were already dead and from the eleven that remained, five were Career tributes (the girl from District 4 had died in the bloodbath).

Without the threat of a Career alliance, the other tributes seemed to be doing quite well now they knew that they weren't going to be hunted down. Some of them actually got quite daring and tried to take on the lone Career tributes and this had varying levels of success. The boy from District 6 successfully brought down the boy from District 1 with a well placed arrow but the girl from District 8 failed to sneak up on the girl from District 1 and received and sword wound in the stomach. Silena was attacked as well, by the boy from District 10 who came at her with a spear but Silena dodged and slit his throat with her sword. As a result of this, when it got down to the final eight tributes, three of them were still Career tributes.

As the Gamemakers didn't want to use the arena to cause any more deaths, they needed to find another way to get the tributes fighting. It had been three days since the last tribute had died and the remaining Career tributes didn't look like they were going to do anything special anytime soon. So the Gamemakers came up with the idea of a feast. Every tribute in the arena needed something, whether it was some more food or water or some matches for a fire. All the tributes had had sufficient supplies, but it was nearing the end of the Games and those supplies were running out. District 2 and District 6 still had both their tributes alive so the Gamemakers decided that they would only have one bag per district in order to guarantee at least two fights if all four tributes showed up. The bags were labelled 1, 2,5,6,9 and 11 each containing some essential supplies. A feast was announced and then the Gamemakers sat back and watched.

Silena was running out of water. She was miles away from the river and she didn't want to go there anyway as she couldn't defend herself whilst collecting water. This feast was the perfect opportunity for her and she had been trained to fight so she knew that she stood a good chance against the boy from District 2. And if she was lucky, the boy from District 2 wouldn't turn up. She was wrong.

The Gamemakers had already lost the chance for one fight as the girl from District 6 hadn't turned up so the boy from District 6 had the bag all to himself. There had been a moment where the tributes from Districts 9 and 5 had almost fought as they ran out to get their bags at the same time. They looked at each other and the girl from District 5 looked as if she was about to leave before the boy from District 9 shot an arrow at her. It was a death but it hadn't really been much of a fight or a struggle. All hopes were now riding on both the District 2 tributes turning up.

Silena got to the Cornucopia but chose to hide until she was sure everyone else had been. The bags from 6 and 9 were gone and the bag from 5 was on the floor but there were still three other tributes that could potentially kill Silena. Darkness fell and Silena was getting weaker. She needed water, she'd just have to try and grab the bag. Quietly she crept out from behind a bush and then sprinted over towards the bags. No sooner had she laid hands on the bag from District 2, did the boy from District 2 come thundering towards her, closely followed by the boy from District 11 who was aiming a spear right at the boy from District 2's back! The boy from District 2 was also in dire need of water but had been scared to go to the feast as someone could easily overpower him whilst he was in this weak state. The boy from District 11 had spotted him hiding behind a bush and had tried to sneak up on him but the boy from District 2 had sprinted off to the feast when he saw Silena emerge.

Now the three tributes were battling it out, Silena with a sword and the two boys with spears. But the boy from District 2 was much weaker than Silena and she easily overpowered him and sent him sprawling on the ground with a sword wound to the shoulder before the boy from District 11 finished him off. Then the remaining two tributes turned on each other. The boy from District 11 was strong but Silena was quicker and she kept dodging until he began to tire, then she sent her sword into his side before grabbing all the remaining bags and running off.

It turned out that the District 11 bag and the District 5 bag both contained food and matches whilst the District 1 bag contained medicine to heal an infection from a knife wound. The girl from District 1 had taken a knife wound when she was attacked by the girl from District 8 a few days ago but it had got worse. Without this vital medicine, the wound got worse and she died the following morning. Silena was the only Career tribute left. The Gamemakers expected her to go off and hunt the other tributes down but she was comfortable where she was and decided she'd done enough fighting and would let the other tributes come to her if they wanted to. They didn't. Her reputation as a Career tribute scared off the remaining three tributes who didn't come looking for her. Perhaps the boy from District 6 would've come to face her as he was very good with a bow and arrow but the girl from District 6 and the boy from District 9 managed to kill him with six different sword wounds before turning on each other. The boy from District 9 slit the girls throat but by this time, he had a severe wound to the head and was in no fit state to look for Silena.

That night, when Silena realised there was only two of them left, she decided to go and end it, seeing as the boy from District 9 must be weaker than her after fighting two tributes in one day. By the time she got there he could barely move and all it took was a knife in the heart. Silena had won the 24th Hunger Games.

This was good news for District 2 as next year the tributes would need all the help they could get. Next year was the first Quarter Quell and every district either dreamed of winning it or was dreading what was to come.


	25. 25th Hunger Games (Quarter Quell) Ashen

25th Hunger Games 1st Quarter Quell

Winner: Ashen District 10

This year was huge, the biggest and best Hunger Games so far. When the 1st Hunger Games was over, the President decided that there would be a special Hunger Games every twenty five years to remind the whole of Panem how important the Hunger Games were to keep the peace in the districts. These special Hunger Games were called Quarter Quells and they had a twist to make them even worse for the tributes.

The first Quarter Quell declared that the tributes wouldn't be reaped. Any child between 12-18 could be voted in by their district. This was a huge blow for the districts as it was hard enough to watch their children get picked randomly, never mind having to watch their child go through the Hunger Games knowing that their neighbours had put them there.

For some districts it was easy. The Career districts all voted for the strongest tributes, who would've volunteered if they'd had the chance anyway. Some districts voted for the children of murderers and thieves, as punishment for their parents. Other districts found it painfully hard. Families met in secret to make sure their children wouldn't be picked; people were willing to do anything to protect their son or daughter. Wealthier families turned to bribery but this backfired in some districts, in fact wealthier children were voted in much more than any other background. People took their money and broke their promise. It wasn't fair that these children could be saved because of how much they owned. Children that didn't have to take any tesserae, who had an advantage in the normal Games, shouldn't have an advantage in a Quarter Quell as well! This is how Ashen, the overall victor was picked.

Ashen was the eldest of six children but she was still better off than most of her district as her father was the mayor of District 10. They always had enough to eat and they wouldn't have to work whilst the rest of the district starved or worked to death. Most importantly, they took no tesserae. Ashen's family wasn't hated but people did think that it was unfair that they had so much whilst others had so little. This was why Ashen was voted into the Hunger Games. District 10 didn't want to send anyone to their deaths, but someone had to go so it made sense to vote in the eldest from the richest family in the District. One of her brothers might have been voted in as well, but only one child was allowed in per family so the son of another rich family was picked. His father's job was to check that the rest of District 10 was working hard enough so he was basically a spy for the Peackeepers even if he didn't mean to be. Both District 10 tributes took the vote in good grace but inside they were fuming that they were picked when they weren't guilty of any crime whatsoever. Most of the tributes felt this way which made them all want to win even more just so they could prove the people that voted them in wrong.

As this year was the Quarter Quell, everything had to be bigger and better than normal. A completely new Training building was built in the heart of the Capitol and a party was held at the Presidents mansion, which all the tributes were invited to. It would be hard to ever try and top this.

Despite the tributes not being able to volunteer this year, there were still Career tributes that had been training for years for this moment. They intimidated the field by hogging all the weapons, which there were plenty of in the new Training area. The Gamemakers were not leaving anything to chance with the Quarter Quell. The arena had to be perfect, there had to be lots of fights, but not so the Games ended quickly. There were so many contributing factors to get right in order for the perfect Games but the Gamemakers lives were on the line. So they were pleased to find out that the Careers had an alliance together. But it turned out they wouldn't be the only ones who would make an alliance.

The arena for the Quarter Quell was a labyrinth of caves, some above ground, some underground. The whole arena was in constant semi-darkness so it was impossible to tell night from day and very difficult to try and catch any animals. But there would be lots of shelter and lots of safe places to hide and there were a collection of strange plants and fungi should any tribute be brave or hungry enough to try them.

When the gong sounded, quite a lot of the tributes ran into the caves, grabbing any thing they could on their way. When the Careers started hunting, it would be almost impossible for them to find most of the tributes as the arena had been designed that way to make it a little harder for the Careers this year.

Meanwhile Ashen had done what many other tributes had and avoided the bloodbath by taking what she could before running off into one of the caves. She was safe for now but she didn't have a weapon so if anyone did find her, she was dead.

Time passed and most of the tributes settled down in the caves to hide, occasionally moving to a different cave. After the Careers had killed the ones that hadn't hid well enough or had stayed to fight at the Cornucopia, they started to try and hunt down the other tributes but that wasn't as easy as normal as there were hundreds of caves making it very easy to get lost. Ashen was one of the tributes that had got lost as she didn't want to settle down in one cave for the whole night, but now found that she couldn't remember how to get back to open air and the Cornucopia. The Gamemakers had made sure that there was plenty of oxygen in each cave so the tributes wouldn't suffocate and if Ashen was lost, it might mean that other tributes wouldn't follow her in case they got lost so maybe it was a good idea for her to stay where she was. Ashen headed into a small cave tucked away in between two bigger ones and was about to settle down for the night when she saw two sets of eyes staring back at her.

Ashen was frozen in fear. She didn't know what to do. She had no weapon and no way to defend herself so she could either run or convince them not to kill her. Although if they were going to kill me, Ashen thought, wouldn't they have done it by now?

Seconds ticked by as the two tributes stared at Ashen. In the darkness, she could barely see them but they made no attempt to try and attack her, despite both having swords. They looked to be about the same height and seemed to have the same shaped eyes and skin colour so Ashen assumed they were from the same district. She broke the silence by asking "Are you going to kill me?"

"No, we're not" replied one of them – a boy.

"We're both from District 8 and we don't really know what to do as neither of us has a clue about fighting" came a girl's voice proving Ashen's theory about them being from the same district correct. Ashen wasn't sure what to do about this. They both looked to be quite a few years younger than her and they had already admitted to not being able to fight. She could probably overpower them but did she want to? Ashen had only been in the arena a day and was already lost and completely alone. Maybe she could do with a friend.

"Why don't we be allies? We can help each other as I don't have a weapon and you two don't know how to use one" Ashen suggested.

Her idea was met with blank faces and Ashen's heart sank. She was going to be alone. Then the two tributes slowly nodded and gestured for her to sit down. It was official; there was another alliance apart from the Careers.

Ashen soon found that the two District 8 tributes, Lea and Dressal, were actually really good company. They had weapons, food and water but above all that; they were friendly and Ashen felt safe with them. She taught them how to fight if they needed to and in return, they gave her two knives they'd been carrying which suited Ashen fine.

Days passed and Ashen, Lea and Dressal passed the time in the little cave encountering nothing but six bats which they managed to catch and eat. There had been four deaths since the bloodbath and this wasn't good enough for a Quarter Quell. The Gamemakers had tried to make the arena difficult to create a sense of constant fear for the tributes (even more so than usual) and it had worked but there hadn't been as many deaths as the Gamemakers had expected. So the Gamemakers brought out the next best thing to try and get a bit of action. Mutts.

The last time mutts had been used was the 13th Hunger Games when they had been like bulls. Unfortunately the idea hadn't worked so the Gamemakers had sort of forgotten about them. But they were brought back for the Quarter Quell and this time they were killing machines.

Like most terrible things, the mutts came in the night. Huge rat-like creatures snuck into the caves to slaughter any tribute not on their guard. It was the first tribute to be attacked screams that woke up most of the other tributes. But weapons weren't much use against the mutts as they overcame the tributes just in sheer numbers. There were about thirty of these rat creatures that stayed together in a pack, hunting down the tributes one by one.

When they came for Ashen, Lea and Dressal, they were up with weapons in hands. There were about 8 mutts for each of the three tributes but they held their ground. Lea and Dressal were more confident with sword work and could behead the mutts in one single stroke if they got too close. Ashen had two knives that she could slit the mutts throats with, if they tried to bite her. It looked as though the tributes might actually kill all the mutts until Dressal went down. He had slipped on a pool of blood and had fallen, his sword sliding across the floor. The mutts tore into him. Having seen what happened, Lea ran towards him, ignoring Ashen's screams to stay back. She dove into the fight, at first trying to save Dressal, and then to try and give him a quick end. The boom of the cannon signified Dressal's death but Lea was still trying to get to him. The mutts turned to their next victim and Ashen stood helpless as her last remaining friend was attacked. At least her death was quick.

After the mutts killed Lea, there weren't as many of them as before and the Gamemakers had sensed that they had done enough damage and made them a bit easier to fight. Ashen fended of three more with her knives before the others slunk away into the shadows before disappearing into nothing. There were now only 6 tributes left.

Ashen was now alone. She had no one to help her or protect her whilst she slept so she went back into the cave and stayed in the darkness. She wasn't going to go looking for the other tributes. Out of the remaining tributes, two of them were Career tributes and that was who Ashen feared the most as she knew they'd come looking for her. Two more days passed until someone found her. But it wasn't a Career tribute, it was the boy from District 12 and it looked like he wanted to hide in Ashen's cave more than anything else. He put up a fight but his badly aimed spear wasn't really a match for Ashen's knives and she placed one in his stomach and then another one in his chest once he'd fallen. By now there were only three tributes left and only one of them was a Career. Ashen settled back down into her cave, hoping that the other two would finish each other off and quickly – she was running out of food despite having Lea and Dressal's provisions as well as the boy she'd just killed. There were plenty of plants around but Ashen only recognised two. A mushroom she ate back in District 10 and nightlock which was a poisonous berry.

That night a cannon went off. One of the tributes was dead.

But which one? The anthem had already been played for that day so Ashen wouldn't find out until tomorrow evening. If she was still alive by then that is. Ashen was good with a knife but not brilliant. If it was the boy from District 3 that was still alive, she might stand a chance but if it was the boy from District 1, she was dead. Ashen had to come up with a plan, she'd starve if she stayed here forever as whilst she was safe in the cave, the other tribute was safe too unless he starved or died of an injury. This made Ashen realise something; what if the other tribute was running out of food as well! Nightlock didn't really grow much in the north of Panem so maybe she could trick the other tribute into eating it. There was plenty of nightlock around so Ashen made her trap. What she didn't know was that it was more of a trail than a trap which would lead the other tribute straight to her.

The final battle took place in the cave where Ashen had spent the entire Games. She had accidentally left a pretty obvious trail instead of what she thought was a trick so it was no surprise to anyone but her when instead of a cannon she heard footsteps. Someone jumped into the cave carrying two knives like Ashen. It was the boy from District 1, the Career that Ashen had feared. She knew she was dead but as the boy ran towards her, Ashen grabbed her knives and aimed for the throat while he aimed for the stomach. She missed but he didn't.

Instead of falling to the floor, he caught her and was about to slit her throat when Ashen raised a hand and for a moment it looked like she was going to punch him in the mouth. The Capitol smiled at this feeble attempt to escape, a punch to the face wouldn't stop him stabbing her. So everyone was shocked when both of them fell to the floor but only a single cannon went off. Unknown to everyone, Ashen had still been holding some nightlock in her hand and she had forced it down the boys throat instead of punching him. But then the wound in her stomach made itself known and she collapsed on the ground. The Capitol was shocked, were they both dead?

The whole of Panem held their breath as the commentator began his announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the victor of the 25th Hunger Games….

Ashen from District 10!"

Ashen was alive but she urgently needed medical attention and the closing ceremony was postponed as they weren't sure if she was going to make it. She did though and became the most famous tribute so far, the winner of the first Quarter Quell. It had turned out brilliantly for the Gamemakers, the tension at the end had the Capitol talking for days. Ashen had a happy ending too, which was rare for a tribute. She got to go home to a district that treated like a hero despite the fact that they'd voted her into the Games in the first place. The Quarter Quell had been memorable and the Capitol couldn't wait for the next one.


	26. 26th Hunger Games- Reed (First Chariots)

26th Hunger Games

Winner: Reed District 9

The 26th Hunger Games was always going to be a disappointment after last years exciting Quarter Quell so nobody expected much. However, the Gamemakers still had to keep the people interested, yes the Quarter Quell had been great but there was a new Hunger Games to think about now.

So they had to come up with something new, something completely different.

It was one of the mentors that came up with it. Why not start the Hunger Games a little earlier this year. The reaping would still be at the same time but let the Capitol catch a glimpse of the tributes before the interviews. On chariots perhaps?

It was a great excuse to get dressed up and have a party and if there's one thing that the Capitol was known for, it was its love of parties.

The Gamemakers rose to the challenge magnificently. Stylists were hired to design outfits to represent each district as well as glamming up the tributes a bit; some made a better job at it than others and there would be some tributes who wished they could go into the Games there and then to avoid the embarrassment.

But first, the tributes had to be reaped.

The last reaping had been disastrous for all the districts, with them having to turn on each other to pick the tributes. But some districts did feel less guilty than others, depending on who they'd picked. One of these districts was District 9 as they'd voted in the children of two murderers as further punishment for their crimes, so overall most of the district had a relatively clear conscience. But this year would be completely different.

For a start, the girl tribute, Paige,was only twelve which meant she didn't stand much of a chance. But the boy that was reaped was a favourite of District 9. His father was a bit of a local hero after saving a childminders home full of children after a house fire, and it seemed as though his son wanted to go the same way. Seventeen year old Reed was one of the best in school, very helpful around the district and was in love with the Mayors eldest daughter and hoped to marry her one day meaning that just about everybody in the district had heard of him.

A hushed silence fell on the already angry crowd when Reed's name was called out. He had such a good future ahead of him, as did most of the tributes that were reaped, but it seemed even more unfair than normal to District 9. He had to win, he just had to.

Reed not only proved to be District 9's favourite, he won the Capitols favour as well. People were already taking interest in him at the opening ceremony, after his districts reaction to the reaping causing the stylist to play on this idea and make him look like a hero, standing tall and proud, protecting the little girl stood next to him. On top of all this, Reed scored an 8 in training so he was going into the Games with a reasonable chance at surviving. He wasn't as good at fighting as the Careers but he at least stood a decent chance if one of them preyed on him.

The arena this year was a tropical jungle which would be boiling in the day but the temperature would plummet at night. However, there was plenty of water, plants and animals so the tributes didn't think it looked too bad.

When the gong sounded, enough tributes ran to the Cornucopia for there to be a decent fight which was good news for the Gamemakers as they needed some gore early on to prove to the Capitol that the ordinary Games were just as good as the Quarter Quell.

Reed was one of the ones that had entered the fight to get to a weapon. He had, after all, scored an 8 so felt he should at least have some sort of weapon as he was probably skilled enough to get to safety afterwards. So he grabbed a sword, killed two tributes on his way out the Cornucopia who'd tried to attack him and then headed of into the jungle. He was not going to stick around and find out if he could beat the Careers at something they'd been trained to do for several years.

Despite, Reed worrying about the Careers, his main fear along with many other tributes would soon turn to food. At a first glance, it had looked like there would be plenty of food such as berries and plants and that's what quite a few tributes thought…up until they died.

The food was poisonous. 50% of the food that the Gamemakers had supplied was lethal. If you didn't know your plants, it was a fatal lottery.

It took a while for all the tributes to realise this. Some saw other tributes die from eating fruit they had been about to eat themselves, others saw discarded berries lying around where tributes had just died. Tributes from the more countrified districts found it slightly easier but even they struggled. The hardest thing was that there wasn't a lot of the same fruit, the Gamemakers had used over 70 different kinds of food, some from the districts, some genetically modified. To make things worse, there hadn't been a survival station in training for edible pants as the Gamemakers thought it would kill of the stronger tributes that wouldn't have bothered with the survival stations. They needed a strong winner this year.

The tributes now faced a choice:

Work out which plants are edible and then go looking to see if there's anymore anywhere- unsuccessful.

Kill other tributes and then take what they were eating – dangerous.

Don't eat until you start to starve to death and then just hope the thing you pick is edible- painful.

Each tribute tried something slightly different with varying levels of success. The two District 1 tributes both died when they ate something they found in another tributes possession that had turned out to be poisonous. There were many deaths but surprisingly the Gamemakers weren't worried about it being short Games. They couldn't afford the Capitol to get bored and if that meant killing off all the tributes, then that was what they'd do. They had some fun with it though. Each poison worked differently; some tributes just died painlessly, others rolled around in agony vomiting their insides up. Add that, to the fights between desperate tributes over potentially edible food and it made for a pretty exciting Games. But not for the districts.

Back in District 9, everyone was on tenterhooks. Ivy wasn't starving but was extremely vulnerable and Reed could fight but was starving. The Mayors daughter, distraught at the thought of losing Reed, had managed to raise the funds to send a tribute some food which would probably keep them alive. The problem was that the rest of the district couldn't decide on whom to send it to. They couldn't abandon Ivy when she'd made it this far. It wasn't until the sixth day of the Games that the decision was made.

Reed was hungry but he had food he didn't dare eat. He'd been alright at first and had found fruit that was similar to the oranges that could be seen in the outskirts of his district. But then it had run out and he couldn't seem to find anymore. He didn't dare risk eating anything else. For two days he'd been wandering the arena trying to find some sign that he could find the orange fruit. Fortunately he hadn't come across another tributes but that changed as he was just about give up for the day. Reed had just sat down, behind a group of plants when there was a rustle behind him and Ivy came bursting out of the bushes carrying an armful of fruit. Reed watched her go feeling pleased that the little girl had had the initiative to steal another tributes food without them noticing. No sooner had he thought that did the boy from District 5 come crashing past Reed, brandishing a loaded bow. Reed jumped to his feet, sword in hand, and went charging after the two of them to protect Ivy. When he eventually caught up to them, Ivy was still running but the District 5 tribute was gaining on her. A sword in the back of his neck soon stopped the chase.

As soon as the District 5 tribute fell so did Ivy. Unknown to Reed, the other tribute had shot her in the side with an arrow but she had kept running. It was only when she stopped that the wound really made itself known. A heartbroken District 9 watched as Reed stayed with Ivy until she took her final breath. At least it had been quick.

The Mayors daughter couldn't help feeling slightly pleased as the rest of the district declared that they must send Reed some food immediately. It had reached him by the next morning and combining that with the fruit Ivy had stolen, Reed's problems were over. He just had to wait for everyone else to die now which wouldn't take long.

The Careers were the last to go. The District 1 tributes had died on the fourth day but that still left four of them who had been killing everyone else to take their food. But with no tributes left, their edible resources were low which caused squabbling. Squabbling turned into fighting which turned into death threats. Twenty minutes and four deaths later, Reed was the victor.

Despite him nearly starving to death, Reed was actually happy he'd been reaped in the end. He had proved himself to the rest of District 9 and when it mattered, they had given up what little they had for him. With his winnings, he could provide for the Mayors daughter and married her. Eventually years down the line, he became the Mayor himself and he always did an excellent job of helping tributes families in any way he could.


	27. 27th Hunger Games- Emerald

27th Hunger Games

Winner: Emerald District 1

Despite the Career districts training their tributes to win the Hunger Games, they hadn't actually been doing that well in the Games over the past few years.

Yes the Careers had won more than all the other districts but the arenas that the Gamemakers had come up with meant that Districts 1,2 and 4 weren't winning as many as they hoped to. District 1 in particular weren't happy as they hadn't won since the 16th Hunger Games and felt they were wasting time and money on training them. The families of the tributes were also getting upset as their children had assured them they'd been trained well when asking their approval on volunteering, but they obviously weren't as so many came back in boxes.

District 1 was determined to win or at least beat District 2 who were taking the top spot of being the Capitols favourite. The tributes they sent out this year were not only trained in combat but trained to handle different conditions that could come up in the arena. The tributes were Emerald and Onyx and they weren't ordinary Careers.

In training, Emerald and Onyx still ignored the survival stations as they couldn't let the other Careers know that something was different. Besides, by sticking to the weapons, they could intimidate all the other tributes which was always a good thing to do. They both scored a 10 and nobody thought that anything was different; they were clearly typical Careers, good with weapons, bad with arenas and in an alliance with the other Careers.

The Gamemakers tried to make it an even playing field this year by creating a difficult arena but giving the tributes a chance to fight as well. They knew the Careers weren't happy but their main goal was to keep the Capitol interested even if that meant making difficult arenas that the Careers weren't trained for. The arena this year was like a valley full of volcanoes.

And the volcanoes weren't dormant.

Fire spewed under a blood red sky and as the tributes rose up to the arena they started to cough and splutter as the smoke filled their lungs. The Cornucopia was nestled in the corner of the arena instead of the centre as it usually was. The only way the tributes could go was between two volcanoes that were smoking and hissing dangerously.

That might be why so many tributes joined the carnage over the weapons; no one wanted to be the first to venture into the valley. Emerald and Onyx joined the rest of the Careers in guarding the Cornucopia from the other tributes. They proved themselves as Careers when Emerald sent a spear into another tributes stomach when they dared to come to close and then Onyx got two tributes with the same arrow. Whilst they guarded the Cornucopia, the other Careers finished the other tributes who hadn't already fled.

Once this was over, they turned to the weapons and began to share the spoils.

Well, four out of the six Careers turned to the Cornucopia, the District 4 tributes went to their swords and started to creep up to the other four. District 4 like District 1 was desperate for a win, frankly they needed as many as they could get.

Quite a few years had passed since District 4 had become a "Career' district but even now they still felt like they were outsiders compared to Districts 1 and 2. So they had to come up with a plan but it was quite different to District 1's plan. The two District 4 tributes should backstab the others. But they had gone to early and back at the Capitol, the District 4 mentors were screaming at the television screens.

They should've waited! After the bloodbath was too early! What happened to waiting until all the other tributes were dead?

But the mentors could only watch in horror as Onyx heard a noise behind him, turned round and saw the District 4 tributes brandishing swords, alerted the others who slit the District 4 tributes throats on the spot.

It would take a long time for District 1 and 2 to forget this betrayal, especially with it only being the first day of the Games. One day into the Games and already two Careers dead. Emerald and Onyx weren't sure how to react but they decided to go along with the District 2 tributes and go and hunt down the other tributes.

This, for once, was quite an easy task as the remaining tributes hadn't gotten very far, mainly because the volcanoes kept spewing lava at them. Then as one tribute tried to avoid a volcano, another tribute would come up behind them, kill the first tribute but then get trapped themselves. The cycle continued until the Careers came and killed the last remaining tribute but then helped each other cross the puddles of lava that kept appearing. Now that the fear of 'death by volcano' was gone the Careers could focus on hunting the other tributes down. The game was on.

The other tributes had scattered across the arena but there wasn't really anywhere to hide as nobody wanted to risk climbing up a volcano when it was unlikely they'd come back down in one piece. This made it all too easy for the Careers with their talents with weapons and their teamwork in avoiding flying molten rock. Emerald and Onyx worked together in cornering tributes before killing them whilst District 2 took the direct approach and charged at one or two tributes at random. This worked out great for tributes who could fight, and could therefore escape, not so great for the ones without weapons or just the weaker tributes in general. After a few days the Capitol actually began to feel sorry for the weaker tributes who were either being attacked by the arena or hunted down by the Careers. They began to send them little tokens of hope, which of course did nothing. But the Gamemakers could tell that they needed to make a change, to stop the endless bloodbaths. They needed to even out the playing field. So they altered the arena. The volcanoes stopped spewing out lava and molten rock, for a while. It was as peaceful as it could get in the Hunger Games...until the volcanoes erupted into scientifically developed fire. This didnt kill the tributes instantly like the lava did earlier but it left them with severe burns and the heat was extremely intense. The Careers stopped hunting tributes so they could focus on surviving instead as there was no shelter anywhere in the entire arena. You'd think that as none of the tributes were interested in killing each other, the death toll would drop and it did for a few peaceful days. But then as more tributes were burnt, they became weak and couldnt find the energy to move when a fireball came hurling towards them so they were burnt alive. This wasnt pretty or quick or gory but the Capitol still seemed to love the idea so the Gamemakers increased the level of difficulty for the tributes. By now there were only six tributes left and four of them were Careers. The Careers were on a break from killing, they were more interested in surviving but once the arena stopped trying to kill them, they would hunt down the remaining two tributes. But the Gamemakers intervened before that could happen. It was about a week and a half into the Games and the volcanoes were still burning. All the remaining tributes were pretty close together, even if they didnt know it and the Gamemakers liked that as sooner or later there would be a confrontation. In fact they liked it so much, they wanted to help speed up the process a little. So the volcanoes burnt even higher and fire poured out from the tops of them and rained down onto the ground. But it didnt go out. The flames kept burning and the fires got bigger and bigger until eventually, you couldnt see the volcanoes for a wall of fire.

And then the fire began to move.

The tributes ran the only way they could, towards the Cornucopia. The firewall pursued them, occasionally spitting out fireballs at the tributes, who were no longer bothered that all six of them seemed to be running side by side. But it was alright, they would reach the Cornucopia and then the fighting could commence. Right now, however, there was a more urgent matter to deal with. Another firewall had appeared, blocking the path to the Cornucopia; between the two fires and the volcanoes, there was no escape. The six tributes were trapped.

It took a few moments for everyone to work out what would happen. The fire was still getting closer so if there wasnt a victor in a few minutes, they would all die anyway. The Careers took action and Emerald and the girl from District 2 quickly killed the other two tributes with two well-placed swords to the stomach.

This could be ended in a few moments but the Gamemakers didnt want a fight, they wanted a show.

Huge fireballs the size of elephants burst out of the fire towards the four remaining tributes that hadn't yet turned on each other. Emerald and Onyx, remembering their training, immediately dropped to the ground but the District 2 tributes had no idea what to do except try and dodge them, so they panicked and ran around like headless chickens, knowing that sooner or later they would die.

As the fireballs got lower and lower, Emerald and Onyx got up and seemingly started to dodge the fireballs like the tributes from District 2. But the District 1 tributes had been trained with the scientifically developed fire that the Gamemakers used so they were able to tell where the next fireball was coming from.

The District 2 tributes were not faring as well. They were both covered in burns and eventually the boy from District 2 fell to the ground in agony and didn't get back up. The girl sensing that she couldn't beat the District 1 tributes, decided to charge at them instead and weak as she was, managed to knock Onyx to the ground before falling herself and being swallowed up by the flames.

Meanwhile Onyx was seconds away from death. He'd hurt his ankle in the fall and couldn't get up in time to avoid the fireball both him and Emerald saw. Emerald could've helped him up, she was stood right next to him.

Of course, she didn't. There was nothing about playing fair in the rules of the Hunger Games and technically her own District wouldn't turn on her as she hadn't actually killed him. So Onyx died and Emerald was the victor.

District 1 was overjoyed as they'd beaten District 2 and their plan had actually worked. This left District 2 intent on revenge but they tried not to show it. More importantly, the 27th Hunger Games had left ill feelings between the Careers, especially against District 4 who had betrayed the alliance, which would affect the Games in the future


	28. 28th Hunger Games- Fennel

28th Hunger Games

Winner: Fennel District 11

During the Uprising, the Capitol created different species of animals to help with the fight against the rebels, an example being jabberjays which were mutations created by the Capitol to be used as spies until the rebels realised and fed the Capitol false information. Eventually once the districts had been defeated; some of the animals went into the wild and were spread out amongst the districts. The Capitol expected the mutations to die out, and many did. But some survived by breeding with other animals in the wild.

One of these species was the mockingjays, created by jabberjays breeding with mockingbirds. Another of these species was the mort-flies. The mort-flies were a combination of the ordinary common fly and the monster gnats that the Capitol had created to eat the districts crops during the Uprising. Unfortunately this new species wasn't content with crops; they liked to feast on humans too.

These mort-flies only existed in Districts 11 and 9, which was where most of Panem's food was grown although it was much worse in District 11 as the flies liked the fruit that was grown in the orchards. The pleas to the Capitol to exterminate them had fell on deaf ears so the districts just had to grit their teeth and bear with it.

On some days, it wasn't so bad. The flies didn't like the cold so wouldn't come out when it was rained. And when they did come out, the workers had found ways to deal with them. Homemade pesticide was made illegally and there was a certain plant found in District 9 to protect the people from bites. But this only worked when the mort-flies came out in small numbers at a time. An infestation would be a disaster for the farmers and for the whole of Panem as no one had a hope of being able to control these monstrous mutation flies. Or so the Gamemakers thought.

Fennel had just turned eighteen when she was reaped for the Games. She had spent her entire life working in the orchard and trying to fit in time for school when it wasn't the harvest season. She had grown up amongst the mort-flies that loved to frequent the orchard that she worked in; she knew everything about them. What time of day they came out, what food they preferred. Everything.

Out of the four tributes in the 28th Hunger Games that had been reaped from Districts 9 and 11, Fennel was the most accustomed to living alongside the mort-flies as she was the only one that really encountered them on a daily basis. The boy tribute from District 11, was as upper-class as you could get in one if the poorest districts and therefore worked inside, counting and sorting the food being sent out to the rest of Panem. The two tributes from District 9 were both 12 year olds and hadn't started working properly so they hadn't yet come across a mort-fly. Without even realising it, Fennel had a huge advantage despite being written off by the Capitol after scoring a 6 in the individual evaluation by shakily throwing knives at a target.

It seemed as if the Gamemakers had run out of ideas for these particular Games as the arena wasn't anything special, in fact as arena's go, it was pretty boring, a barren land.

Similar to a desert, the arena had a few rocks dotted around and a few bits of shrubbery with a river running through the centre, up to the Cornucopia.

When the gong went off, the stronger tributes went straight to the Cornucopia, grabbed weapons, and spread out to attack. The weaker tribute that hadn't run off didn't really stand a chance and this unfortunately included the two District 9 tributes and the boy from District 11 who had all run to the Cornucopia.

Fennel had also run to the Cornucopia but hadn't quite got into the thick of things before she was attacked. Thankfully it wasn't a Career or a particularly strong tribute and Fennel managed to escape, holding the sword she'd been attacked with, but she had a huge cut all down the side of one leg nearly down to the bone, meaning she could barely walk.

Fennel managed to stumble off behind some rocks but she was only a few miles away from the Cornucopia and the sun was already beginning to go down. Her wound had stopped bleeding but had gone a sickly yellow colour and the pain was even greater than before. Fennel's escape from the Cornucopia had got dirt into the then still bleeding cut. Now that she'd stopped to rest, the pain seemed to have doubled and Fennel wasn't sure she'd be able to get back up again. There was a faint glimmer of hope that a sponsor could send her some medicine but having only scored a 6 in the independent evaluation, no one wanted to back her.

Fennel was completely alone and had to just sit and wait for death.

As the hours passed, Fennel began to develop a fever and the pain in her leg got worse. Nobody had arrived to finish her off, but it was only a matter of time as Fennel clearly wasn't going anywhere for quite a while.

But then the Games changed.

The Gamemakers had been trying different things out with using dangerous animals in the arenas. They'd created mutts in the forms of dogs and bulls but they'd never used mutts from the Uprising in case the districts rebelled against it. But as the years passed, anti-Capitol movements began to die down so the Gamemakers felt it was safe to reintroduce the mort-flies. They were aware that Districts 9 and 11 had an advantage but three of them were dead and one was close enough, so the mort-flies were released on the tributes.

It was about midday of the third day when the mort-flies arrived. Fennel still hadn't ventured away from the rock, relying on the supplies she'd picked up from the Cornucopia but as of yet, no one had found her.

A huge swarm appeared in the sky from nowhere, just about blocking out the sun and Fennel recognised them as mort-flies from the distinctive humming sound the made. She watched them pass over, knowing that for now, she was safe as the swarm would go for the fruit first and then start to eat the tributes,. As long as she stayed away from the fruit that the mort-flies liked, she'd be fine for a few more days.

Other tributes weren't so lucky.

Despite there not being a lot of plants in this arena, the bushes that were there, had lots of berries on them, specifically put there to attract the mort-flies. Any tribute that was too near one of those bushes would be attacked.

The first casualty of the mort-flies was the girl from District 7 who had curled up underneath one of the bushes for shelter. The swarm came over to the bush and devoured the berries growing on it but there wasn't that many on this particular plant and so the swarm soon turned its attention to the sleeping girl underneath them. They poured into her mouth, crawled into her ears and ate their way through her eyes and stomach. Seconds later, all that remained of the girl was a pile of bones.

This dramatic death was only the beginning. Over the next few hours, any tribute that was anywhere near anything the mort-flies wanted to eat would be destroyed. There was no escape unless you avoided any sort of plant and this tactic worked for quite a few tributes including Fennel for a number of days…until the plants disappeared.

Once the mort-flies had eaten all the plants and fruit, their next source of food became the tributes. Any sort of hope of survival for the tributes was long gone. There wasn't a single tribute that wasn't scared of these monsters and in a desperate attempt to end the Games, tributes were seeking each other out to try and end it before the mort-flies got to them.

Miraculously, Fennel was still alive. Her fever had subsided and the cut, whilst still painful and almost impossible to walk on, was no longer life-threatening. Fennel had had enough supplies to keep her going for several days and hidden behind her rock; she was just about invisible and therefore hadn't encountered any other tributes. But the rock wouldn't hide her from the flies.

Now that she had recovered, Fennel could start to form some sort to plan for staying alive. She knew these mort-flies, worked with them everyday. Surely she could think of something to keep her safe. It came to her as she was taking a sip of water. Mort-flies loathed water, they wouldn't go anywhere near it. If she could find some water, she was safe.

Fennel could remember seeing a lake down by the Cornucopia so just set off in broad daylight zrock wouldn't hide her from the flies.

Now that she had recovered, Fennel could start to form some sort to plan for staying alive. She knew these mort-flies, worked with them everyday. Surely she could think of something to keep her safe. It came to her as she was taking a sip of water. Mort-flies loathed water, they wouldn't go anywhere near it. If she could find some water, she was safe.

Fennel could remember seeing a lake down by the Cornucopia so just set off in broad daylight. She wasn't stupid; she knew nobody would be there as the Cornucopia had contained loads of food before the mort-flies ate it all. Besides, all the tributes would be in hiding anyway.

Fennel was right about the Cornucopia. There was no one there so it was easy for her to settle down on the riverbank and wait for everyone else to die.

It only took a few more days for all but one of the remaining tributes to die, yet Fennel still hasn't encountered anyone.

The last tribute was the girl from District 3 and she had survived by simply hiding underneath a rock, so she too hadn't killed anyone yet and didn't seem in any hurry to confront Fennel.

So the impatient Gamemakers decided to speed things along the bit.

They sent a swarm of ordinary flies out to drive the girl from District 3, who assumed they were mort-flies, to the Cornucopia.

When she arrived at the Cornucopia, Fennel was still by the riverbed so didn't notice the District 3 tribute arrive at first, but as the other tribute seemed reluctant to attack and stood behind her for quite a while, it wasn't long before Fennel noticed her.

Fennel didn't want to attack either, so they both stood there for a few moments before the Gamemakers pushed the District 3 girl towards the river by sending another swarm of mort-flies at her.

She ran towards Fennel, half-heartedly stabbing at her with a knife but Fennel dodged the feeble attempts to kill her and, grabbing the girl by the neck, pushed her into the water and held her face down. There wasn't much of a struggle. The District 3 girl had been quite young and was clearly traumatised by what she'd seen.

Fennel was the winner of the 28th Hunger Games and she'd only killed one person. The Gamemakers, however were disappointed. They couldn't use mutts from the Uprising again as clearly some districts had advantages over others which was the only logical explanation as to how Fennel won. It also taught the Capitol something- don't judge a tribute solely by their independent evaluation.


	29. 29th Hunger Games- Triton

29th Hunger Games

Winner: Triton District 4

To be able to understand the result of the 29th Hunger Games, you have to go back to the 27th Hunger Games where an incident occurred between the Career tributes right at the beginning of that particular Games. The District 4 tributes tried to stab the other Careers in the back…literally.

They died in the attempt but since then the trust just wasn't there anymore. Both Districts 1 and 2 wanted revenge and as a result of this, in the 28th Hunger Games, the District 4 tributes kept to themselves and even the District 1 and 2 tributes drifted away from the alliance that they normally had.

But the 28th Hunger Games had been and gone and this years Games had different tributes with completely different ideas on how to win. And this years District 4 tributes decided that they needed the alliance.

The District 4 tributes this year were Triton, age 18 and Marina age 17. They were both very strong but were scared of having to go it alone. In training they tried to be friendly to the other Career tributes but were rejected despite them both proving how talented they were with weapons. Even two 9's in training weren't good enough for the District 1 and 2 tributes so Triton and Marina had to go into the arena completely friendless. This was an exact repeat of last year but last years District 4 tributes had accepted it and just got on with things. But Triton and Marina had a feeling that they would be the first to be hunted down by the Careers, who seemed to be particularly bitter this year.

What Triton and Marina didn't know is that Triton had many fans in the Capitol who were sure to make themselves known once the Games started. Tall, tanned and athletic, Triton was extremely good looking and the Capitol wanted him to win so they would get to see him every year when he would return as a mentor. They would help Triton, whatever the cost.

The arena this year was based on the artic that the children of Panem learnt about in their history lessons. With huge glaciers threatening to break any minute and huge white monsters prowling the arena, it was going to be a harsh Hunger Games, especially if the tributes couldn't get warm. To make sure that the Games didn't consist of watching every tribute slowly freeze to death, the Gamemakers had made sure that there was plenty of fire wood and matches in the Cornucopia for any tribute brave enough to go and get it.

When the gong sounded, most of the tributes, suspecting they would need firewood to survive, ran into the bloodbath. But Triton and Marina did something that was practically unheard of for Career tributes; they ran from the Cornucopia after Marina ran in a few metres to grab a box of matches and two knives.

The two of them had realised that they would be hunted down by the Careers so they needed to put as much distance between them and the Cornucopia as possible.

Triton and Marina trekked for hours before stopping to set up camp. Food wasn't a problem as there were plenty of fish under the ice and there was plenty of water as well. Their main concern was keeping warm. The fur lined coats the tributes were wearing only did so much and a box of matches weren't enough to keep two people warm by themselves.

That was when Triton's first gift arrived.

It was a bundle of logs and in no time the two of them had a roaring fire going. Of course Marina got to share the gift as well and the two of them assumed that it was for the both of them when in reality, only Triton was getting sponsors. It was rare that both tributes from the same district would get gifts as the mentor had to choose a tribute to help as there was only ever one victor.

But for now Marina and Triton didn't suspect anything.

It wasn't until midday of the second day when the two District 4 tributes realised who the gifts were actually for.

By this time the Careers, who were hunting for the two District 4 tributes, had nearly caught up with them and of course, the Capitol could see them get closer and closer through the cameras. Triton and Marina were completely oblivious to the oncoming threat.

When the Careers were only minutes away, the sponsors started showering Triton with money that the District 4 mentor could use to buy a weapon. But only one weapon.

Triton and Marina had realised that there was someone coming towards them by the time the gift arrived. Eagerly, the two tributes looked in it expecting to see two weapons but they were both surprised to see one sword with a note attached saying:

 _The sponsors made it clear this was for Triton. Sorry Marina. Aqua x_

Moments passed and the Careers got closer and closer but Triton and Marina both stood watching each other, the sword lying between them. Marina was seething in anger and was glaring at Triton, who was looking quite smug, like this was entirely his fault. Triton did intend to take his sword, which looked to be good quality, but he wanted to let Marina calm down first.

Just as Marina opened her mouth to say something, a Career tribute came into view brandishing an axe and all thoughts of arguments disappeared. Triton grabbed his sword and Marina got her knife out as the other two remaining Careers (the girl from District 2 had been killed earlier) appeared.

The fight was evenly matched as the boy from District 2 was sporting a leg injury from an earlier encounter with a bear like creature so one stab with Triton's sword and he was out for good. The other two Careers proved to be trickier to defeat and both Marina and Triton were covered in cuts and bruises by the end of it including a nasty looking wound on the side of Tritons head. But in the end, being from the same district, Triton and Marina had the advantage as they knew each other well and could work together to eventually kill the boy from District 2. The girl from District 1 could see that she'd lost and sprinted away but neither Marina or Triton bothered to pursue her. They returned to the matter of the sword.

It was Marina who made the first move. She leant down as if to grab it from Triton's hand but he was too quick for her and slashed upwards with it, catching her in the chest. The wound was quite a bit deeper than the one he'd meant to make but as she died in a pool of blood. Triton tried to convince himself that it was alright that he'd killed Marina. She tried to take his sword. It was clear the sponsors preferred him to her and Aqua, their mentor, had clearly taken a side and chosen him. At the end of the day, she was competition that he needed to defeat.

It turned out that the Capitol didn't think Triton had done anything wrong either as minutes after the cannon went off for Marina, he received some medicine for the wound on his head. It was an expensive gift but the Capitol loved him so much they were willing to pay just about anything to keep him alive. And with practically everyone in the Capitol buying him gifts, Triton barely needed to lift a finger.

Whilst the other tributes froze, he was given matches and wood. Whilst the other tributes died from infected wounds, he was given medicine. Whilst the other tributes died in agony, Triton was kept alive.

The Gamemakers weren't particularly happy with this. Triton wasn't finding life in the arena tough at all. All he had to do himself was catch fish and kill tributes. When they'd set the sponsoring up, a limit had been placed on how much could be spent on an individual tribute but as everyone was buying Triton small little gifts, no one had broken any rules. It wasn't in the spirit of the Games but the Gamemakers weren't about to stop something that made the Capitol so happy.

The other tributes could've just given up when Triton received his sword. It was clear he was going to win; the Capitol would make sure of it. Triton didn't fail to please by delivering several gruesome deaths to several tributes towards the end of the Games but he was so strong and healthy compared to them, it only took one swipe of his sword and they were dead whether it was a slit throat, a sword to the stomach or in on case, a sword to the back.

Once the 29th Hunger Games were over and Triton was announced the victor, the Capitol were able to see a lot more of him. Triton was truly grateful for the support and made several speeches and even went and visited some of his sponsors. It'd be nice to think that being the Capitols favourite, Triton's story would have a happy ending but this wasn't the case.

When Triton returned to the Capitol for the Victory Tour, he was still as handsome as ever and people were so desperate to spend time with him that they started to pay for the pleasure of his company. Triton was allowed to take the money and jewels but wasn't allowed to refuse anyone. He effectively became the Capitols possession and its sad to say that over the years, this happened to many other victors which left them thinking that maybe they weren't so lucky to have won the Games after all


	30. 30th Hunger Games-Fabry

30th Hunger Games

Winner: Fabry District 6

By now you've probably realised that the victors don't have happy endings even after they've survived the Games. Traumatised by the horrors they faced in the arena, many victors were unable to cope and turned to drink or in some cases, drugs. The victor of the 30th Hunger Games was a particularly bad case; she fell into a depression and then nearly died after purposely taking an overdose of morphine. But to understand why Fabry was so emotionally scarred, we need to go to the 30th Hunger Games.

The reaping this year picked particularly young tributes meaning that Fabry was one of the only seventeen year olds in the Games. However compared to the strapping strong tributes of the Career districts, which was where most of the older tributes were from, Fabry was scrawny, thin and extremely shy so despite her age, no one expected much from her.

However Fabry managed to prove herself in the Training Centre. She was brilliant with a knife and every time she threw, she always got the neck which meant instant death if she got anyone in the arena. Fabry then went on to get a 7 in the individual evaluation so she definitely had potential in the weapons But unlike some of the tributes, Fabry had also visited the survival stations and had found she was very good with using the camouflage paint to blend into her surroundings which would be an added bonus if she couldn't get a knife.

The arena this year was a swampy marshy land which could only be described as mudlands. There was a constant drizzle and there was quite a lot of mist which could make it hard for the tributes to see. But there were lots of plants and berries to eat and a huge amount of mud.

When the gong went off, Fabry ran to the Cornucopia to grab a knife. She was good with one and everyone knew it, even the Careers respected her as she could potentially beat them in a fight. Once Fabry had picked up her knife, everyone expected her to join the bloodbath that the Careers had already started but she did something that was completely unexpected. She ran away.

Fabry ran and hid in the mud. She'd realised that she'd much rather hide than stay to fight; she was less likely to be killed this way. The Capitol was shocked. Yes, this was a clever move but not one they'd expected from someone who could fight. Fabry was supposed to be killing tributes right now, not running away!

But they couldn't do anything about it for now so they just had to watch as Fabry put as much distance between her and the Cornucopia as she could. Many other tributes also ran and hid but the problem was that there weren't many places to hide. There were no trees and not many plants. Some tributes took to hiding in the marshes, hoping it would be enough cover. Some tributes tried to hide in the only bits of water that there were in the arena, but this proved to be ineffective as soon as other tributes came looking for water. Fabry chose to use her camouflage skills that she had picked up in Training. She wasn't the only one to do this. Many other tributes wanting to avoid fighting, covered themselves in mud but if anyone bothered to look closely, it was pretty obvious someone was there. Fabry seemed to have a real talent for painting as she was able to make herself become invisible and was therefore content to staying hidden throughout the entire Games, moving only at night to gather food and water.

Any other tribute that tried to camouflage themselves would've died if they had hidden where Fabry hid as it was quite near one of the only water sources in the arena and was therefore frequented by many tributes. But no one noticed her as she was able to keep completely still, sometimes even holding her breath.

Being so close to the other tributes some times, Fabry witnessed many deaths when other tributes accidentally bumped into each other, some of which were extremely gruesome. In some cases, Fabry would go and put the abandoned wounded tribute out of their misery to stop their screaming. Then she would go back to becoming part of the arena.

The Gamemakers had sensed that the Capitol weren't happy with this waste of potential, like they were being cheated out of some good fights so they tried to force Fabry into showing herself. They used extreme winds, severe floods and an infestation of mutts in the form of birds but all this accomplished was a few of the other tributes dying. Each time a new threat appeared, Fabry would run until she was safe and then she would cover herself in mud and plants again. All the Gamemakers could do was hope that as the number of tributes dwindled; Fabry was going to be forced to fight. She definitely wasn't going to be found, even the Capitols cameras had problems focusing on her.

The Gamemakers got their wish when it came down to the last two tributes, the boy from District 2 and Fabry. She knew she couldn't wait around and hope he died because she knew the Capitol would want him to win, seeing as she hadn't actually murdered anyone yet. The Capitol would get their chance to see Fabry fight.

They met at the Cornucopia. Fabry hadn't been far away and the boy from District 2 had given up trying to find her. She came into view, holding a knife looking completely composed. As soon as the boy from District 2 saw her, he went charging at her at full speed, sword in hand but Fabry didn't move to meet her. As he got closer and closer Fabry still didn't move and it wasn't until he was right in front of her that Fabry hurled her knife at him and it sunk right into the boy from District 2's neck. Fabry was the victor of the 30th Hunger Games and the Capitol were slightly inclined to forgive her for not fighting as she hadn't disappointed them at the end.

It was a miracle that not a single tribute had found Fabry throughout the Games and it was clear that she was an extremely talented artist. After the Games, Fabry focused her talents on painting and it was nice and peaceful for a while until the Capitol got wind of it and started to badger her with requests. There's only so much attention a person can put up with and soon Fabry began to suffer panic attacks and on top of the nightmares she had about the screaming tributes she'd watched die, it was no surprise that she turned to morphling for a coping mechanism. It's sad to say that she was one of the tributes that never really recovered from the Games.


	31. 31st Hunger Games- Jute

31st Hunger Games

Winner: Jute District 6

The 31st Hunger Games was peculiar in many ways. For a start it was the first time that one of the ordinary districts, that didn't produce regular victors, won back to back Hunger Games. It was also the Hunger Games where instead of being worshipped by the Capitol, the Career districts were mocked and teased.

The reason the Capitol turned against their favourites? They were outsmarted several times by the same tribute and they never even realised it.

The tribute that outsmarted the six Career tributes was Jute, a 16 year old from District 6.

Following the victor of the last Hunger Games being from District 6, it was only natural for District 6 to be over-confident at this years reaping and they weren't disappointed. The girl that was reaped for District 6 looked very promising; she was tall and strong and was very pretty meaning she would attract sponsors. Jute, however, was skinny and very shy; he only spoke during his interview from being reaped to entering the Games.

It was typical for everyone to cast Jute off as someone who'd die early on, they should've known better really, considering the amount of weak-looking tributes who'd won without fighting.

Yet they still underestimated him even though he proved to the Gamemakers during his individual evaluation that he had picked up some valuable skills from District 6's newest mentor. Jute was going to try and use camouflage again.

After successfully hiding for the entirety of the 30th Hunger Games, Fabry tried to teach this year's tributes that you could win without having to be good at killing. The girl hadn't listened to her but Jute did and had spent most of his time at the survival stations and therefore, realised that he also had a flair for camouflage as long as it was very simple colours; he would never be a painter like Fabry. He couldn't just hide like she had though; he would have to come up with something different.

The arena this year was a forest so thankfully Jute could use his camouflage as he could just stick to using green leaves.

When the gong went off, despite not having the stomach for fighting, Jute still ran to the Cornucopia to grab a weapon. Like his mentor, he chose a knife despite showing no interest in them during training.

But then he disappeared.

Nobody saw him leave the Cornucopia, not even the Careers even though they were guarding the Cornucopia. The Gamemakers, of course, knew where he was because of the trackers but they were the only ones.

So where was Jute?

Right at the back of the Cornucopia, behind all the weapons, was some tar like substance that was meant to be used for camouflage. After Fabry, the Gamemakers had decided to put a little bit of camouflage paint at the back, just in case any tribute wanted to use it. Jute had gone to the back of the Cornucopia originally to hide but when he had found the camouflage, he decided he might as well use it. It was nothing brilliant but Jute wasn't intending to spend the entire Hunger Games hiding. But for now he did need to hide.

Meanwhile the Careers had decided to make the Cornucopia their base instead of just wandering around, hunting tributes down. After the bloodbath, the six of them stayed behind to make camp and guard the rest of the weapons and the food. They were intending to stay there and wait for the other tributes to come to them; the District 1 tributes were very good with a bow so they could shoot anyone they could see from the trees. Of course, even when they weren't tracking tributes down, the Careers were still a huge threat.

Jute had decided to hide not too far from the Cornucopia for the first night, to see what was going to happen and what the Careers were going to do. His camouflage was working reasonably well but it wasn't permanent and if someone looked hard enough, they would be able to see him. Jute would have to go back to the Cornucopia eventually as he only had a little bit of water and food and a single knife. From using the survival stations, Jute could tell that many tributes were going to die once the food started to run out as nearly all the berries and plants were poisonous and not many tributes would be skilled enough to catch rabbits and squirrels. Most of the food that had been on offer to the tributes was still at the Cornucopia which is where the Careers were so any tribute wanting food would have to fight them first.

Jute knew he would have to go and fight them as well.

After staying in the trees for as long as he could with barely any food and only a few days worth of water, Jute headed back to the Cornucopia as there was nowhere else for him to go. He only had a knife, which wasn't enough to catch any wild animal and he was so close to the Cornucopia, he might as well try to sneak some food away from the Careers. His camouflage was beginning to come off but he had topped it up with some leaves and mud that he'd found.

When he got back to the Cornucopia, to Jute's dismay he saw that there were three Careers milling around, practising with weapons. However they had their back to the Cornucopia and Jute saw his chance, dodged out from the trees, and sprinted over to the Cornucopia before crouching down right at the back between some rope and some medicine.

Jute realised that there was a flaw to his plan when he saw he couldn't get back out again without being seen, especially when he saw the rest of the Careers returning. He would have to wait until night.

It was very uncomfortable crouched in between a medical kit and an old bit of rope as sharp bits of equipment kept poking into him and the rope was big and heavy. Thankfully, it wasn't something the Careers wanted so they left Jute alone and he remained unnoticed.

When night fell Jute sprinted away with his arms laden down with food but he intended to go back. The medical kit had given him an idea.

Despite having enough food to last him for the rest of the Games if he was careful, Jute spent the next few days gathering plants and berries. The Capitol were confused, it was clear he knew they were poisonous as he hadn't done what many other tributes had already done, and eaten them straight away.

Jute actually intended to rub the berries and plants on his knife and go back and hide in the Cornucopia. That way if any tribute came for supplies, Career or another tribute, he could give them a little prick on the foot that they'd barely feel and the slow- working poison would eventually kill them. If the tributes didn't feel anything, they wouldn't know there was another tribute there and Jute hoped his camouflage was good enough to hide him in the meantime.

Once he had gathered enough plants and berries, Jute went and put his plans into action. This time, there was only one Career standing guard so it was much easier for Jute to slip past him. Despite not wanting to be seen, Jute hid himself much nearer the front of the Cornucopia, by the food where he knew tributes would go.

He had his first shot at killing someone that night. The girl from District 2 went looking for some water and Jute just slipped his poison-coated knife into her big toe. The climate was quite warm so the tributes had been given very thin shoes so they could walk long distances without their feet sweating so Jute was able to use this to his advantage.

The poison took about 12 hours to work so Jute didn't find out if it worked until the next evening as both District 2 tributes were getting bored and went to see if they could find any tributes to kill. When only the boy, Jute assumed his knife had worked, especially when the boy from District 2 said she just dropped dead suddenly. The Careers had no idea what happened and assumed there had been another tribute in the trees somewhere.

Over the next few days Jute continued to stay in the Cornucopia and prick tributes feet. But in four days he'd only got three tributes, both District 1 tributes and the girl from District 8 who'd managed to sneak past the Careers. The Careers had no idea what was happening, they were all just dropping dead all of a sudden.

Jute was determined to kill all the Careers at least, to prove that brains were just as good as fighting skills. He sat patiently and waited for the tributes to come to him. He wasn't disappointed.

Towards the end of the Games, more and more tributes came back for food and water, especially when the Gamemakers released a chemical that polluted all the ponds and rivers in the forest. Jute's camouflage got better and better the more practise he had and it paid off as he was able to kill many tributes from his own hiding place.

When it got down to the final two, Jute still waited for the boy from District 3 to come to him. She did eventually and then all Jute had to do was sit and wait for 12 hours for the announcement that he was the victor.

The Capitol was surprised with Jute and disgusted with the Careers. Everyone backed the Careers yet they'd all been killed by someone who'd been right next to them the whole time. They should've spotted Jute.

One thing was for a certain, the Careers would not be as popular as normal for quite a few Games to come and the Careers would definitely make sure that District 6 didn't win for a long time.

Jute on the other hand was sadly one of the victors that turned to morphling to help cope with the horrors of the Hunger Games. Living in constant fear in the arena had shook Jute's brain and he couldn't cope with watching his own tributes die year after the year so was therefore unable to become a mentor.


	32. 32nd Hunger Games- Lucian

32nd Hunger Games

Winner: Lucian District 2

After the Careers embarrassment last year, they were determined to win this year meaning that Districts 1, 2 and 4 actually wanted to work together this year, past the usual alliance.

Now after suffering the humiliation that the Careers experienced in the 31st Hunger Games, any other district would try a different tactic to what they normally used but this is the arrogant and confident Career Districts we're talking about so of course they decided they would just have to be even stronger and more blood thirsty than last year's tributes. A weapon, after all, was of course, the only way a tribute could win the Hunger Games. Everybody knew that didn't they?

So the Career tributes were extremely strong and fierce this year. They were all eighteen and the best that each district had to offer. But one of the best things about the Careers this year was that they all could use different weapons. Normally, they were all pretty skilled with swords, knives and perhaps even a spear but this year all six of them chose a different weapon. The District 1 girl and the District 2 girl chose a knife, the District 1 boy chose a sword, the District 4 girl chose a bow and arrow, the District 4 boy chose an axe and the boy from District 2, Lucian, chose a spear. A spear was considered to be quite an unusual weapon to use all the time as it couldn't be used for short range meaning that Lucian was at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the other Career tributes.

The Gamemakers decided they wanted a bloodbath this year because for the last two years the victors had both used sneaky tactics to win. Yes, the Capitol had enjoyed the show but they also wanted to see some blood. So the Gamemakers solution to that was to create an arena that would force the tributes into fighting.

So this year's arena was a desert. Of course a huge issue with a desert was the lack of water but the Gamemakers didn't want to see all the tributes die of thirst so plenty of water was provided in the Cornucopia for any tribute that was willing to go get it.

The Careers, as usual, joined together in an alliance and decided to try last year's tactic of guarding the Cornucopia as it was a good concept even if it hadn't worked out very well for the Careers last year. But in a desert, the tributes would have to come to Cornucopia as they had to drink and the only water was in the Cornucopia. The District 1 boy and Lucian were the only ones sent out to try and track other tributes down as they had the long range weapons.

Lucian proved to be extremely good with his spear and was able to take tributes out from 50 metres away so his victims didn't even see him sometimes. He managed to kill quite a few tributes despite not having any trees to climb up, which would've been ideal. But in only a matter of days, Lucian had proved to be a much more effective killer than the other Careers, especially in this open and bleak arena.

But this, of course, made the others jealous.

It was on the fifth day, when the Career alliance began to fall apart. It became an unusual sl in this open and bleak arena.

But this, of course, made the others jealous.

It was on the fifth day, when the Career alliance began to fall apart. It became an unusual split of boys and girls where the boys and girls where the boys started to go off by themselves leaving the girls behind to guard the Cornucopia. Eventually after a heated discussion, Lucian and the boys from Districts 2 and 4 chose to break off the alliance and turned on the girls.

Despite being just as strong as the boys, the girls were caught completely unaware and the three of them were dead within minutes reducing the Career tributes down to just three.

By now there weren't that many tributes left as some, of course, had been killed but the Careers but many more had died of thirst; this year's arena was unforgiving and particularly harsh. Now that half the Careers were dead, the boys decided that they could no longer guard the Cornucopia and they might as well go and hunt the other tributes down.

What happened next was considered to be the goriest fight the Capitol had seen in a good while. The three boys, each armed with a different weapon, were unstoppable and quickly destroyed the opposition. They chopped and hacked their way through several tributes each but Lucian quickly became the Capitols favourite, just in the way he killed. Using his spear, he tended to stab tributes in the back which gave the Capitol plenty of agonising deaths full of blood, especially if Lucian missed and hit them in the arm so they slowly bled to death.

In fairness to the other tributes, some did try and fight back. The girl from District 6 was quite good at throwing knives and managed to chop the boy from District 2's ear off. Another tribute gave the boy from District 4 a few minor injuries during hand to hand combat before the District 4 tribute slit his throat. This was why, towards the end of the Games, Lucian had a slight advantage as he was the only one without any injuries, having killed people from afar,

When it became clear that the only tributes left were the three Careers, there was an extremely tense atmosphere as these boys had worked together but were now going to have to turn on each other. They were all experienced killers but the Capitol favoured Lucian as he didn't use hand to hand combat meaning he was the most interesting killer.

Lucian was the first to turn on the other two once the last tribute had been killed. As the other two watched the hovercraft lift the body of the fallen tribute away, Lucian crept up behind them.

Well, at least, he attempted toey were all experienced killers but the Capitol favoured Lucian as he didn't use hand to hand combat meaning he was the most interesting killer.

Lucian was the first to turn on the other two once the last tribute had been killed. As the other two watched the hovercraft lift the body of the fallen tribute away, Lucian crept up behind them.

Well, at least, he attempted to.

The boy from District 4 sensed that there was a fight looming and watched Lucian out the corner of his eye so was able to dodge his spear when Lucian threw it. The noise alerted the boy from District 1 but instead of turning against Lucian, he attacked the boy next to him, perhaps hoping to catch him unaware. Whatever his reasons were, the boy from District 1 successfully used his sword to kill the boy from District 4.

And then there were two.

At this point Lucian was still stood several metres away and only had one spear left so the boy from District 1 came charging towards him but with a slight limp having been injured a few days before. Lucian didn't run to meet him and instead waited as the other boy came closer and closer and closer…

Blood spurted out the boy from District 1's chest as he fell to the gorund.

Dead.

Lucian had waited until the last possible moment before launching his spear and at such a short range, there was no chance of him missing the target. Lucian was the victor.

The Capitol had got the bloodbath it wanted and it was a nice break for them to just get to watch a nice gory and bloody Hunger Games in which a Career won, compared to an unusual win using tactics which is what they would get next year.


	33. 33rd Hunger Games- Seeder

33rd Hunger Games

Winner: Seeder District 11

The victor of the 33rd Hunger Games was unusual in that she wasn't a ruthless killer but she wasn't someone who wasn't able to use weapons and had to resort to other tactics either. She just did what she had to do to survive, with no intention of killing anyone. In fact the only reason she won was that she didn't want to kill anyone.

To understand how the result of the 33rd Hunger Games came about, we must learn a little bit about the Gamemakers theme for this year. Last year was a good year for them as they got a gory Hunger Games with lots of fights and they'd barely had to lift a finger. But by now, the Gamemakers had noticed that the Careers weren't very consistent with winning so it was more than likely that a tribute from one of the other districts would win this year.

So with this in mind they decided to make sure that the area allowed someone who wasn't very good with weapons to win, the Gamemakers wanted to give the tributes a chance to use their brains.

You'd need to be smart if you wanted to survive this year.

Of course the tributes didn't know this and if last years Games was anything to go by, they'd need to know how to kill and how to steal. So as usual, the Careers were pretty confident and spent all their time showing off with weapons which was somewhat useful, but really they should've been picking up useful skills that they didn't know as they would definitely need them.

One tribute who did spend time at the survival stations was Seeder from District 11.

Seeder was from a very poor background of farmers and she'd known from the age of 12 that as the eldest of four, someone from her family was going to get reaped as even the youngest had to take a lot of tesserae. So Seeder wasn't very surprised when she was picked, grateful even that at least her siblings were safe for another year.

At training, Seeder was mediocre at best with the weapons but she could use them if she had to but in general, she chose to spend her days at the survival stations, learning how to tie knots and light fires. As she worked in the fields of District 11, Seeder already knew quite a few edible plants and some poisonous ones as well as knowing how to climb trees so she did have the necessary skills to survive if needed unlike a lot of other tributes.

Without even knowing it, Seeder already had a huge advantage over the other tributes but then so did the other District 11 tribute. This years arena was a landscape of fields and valleys with barely any trees but this didn't give District 11 any real advantage. What did give Seeder an advantage was the theme of this years games. The Gamemakers, wanting to give some of the other districts a chance chose to make mutts a huge part of the 33rd Hunger Games. But it wasn't until a few days into the Games that any of the action happened.

When the gong sounded, Seeder sprinted away from the Cornucopia straight away before anyone else had a chance to react and had hidden herself away in the tall grass. She intended to hide there for as long as possible as she could get her own food but had no water or weapons. After the bloodbath was over and the tributes had settled down, she would go and find a source of water then.

Meanwhile, many of the tributes had stayed at the Cornucopia to grab what they could. The boy from District 11 quickly lost the advantage the arena had given him when one of the Careers sunk a spear into his head.

The rest of the Careers spread out feeling confident: this would be an easy arena and the other tributes were easy kill. And it did seem that way to the Capitol and the other tributes but the Gamemakers knew that the excitement would arrive eventually to make sure that this Hunger Games wouldn't be the same any other.

It was a few days into the Games, when Seeder noticed anything was wrong. She had collected some water from a pond and it seemed to be a relatively clean water, despite Seeder not having any purifier. She was also able to collect her own food as she recognised a lot of plants and had even managed to catch a rabbit. So overall Seeder was doing reasonably well even without a weapon Seeder was doing reasonably well even without a weapon. But then the Gamemakers intervened.

Their plan was to send in some mutts to try and coax the weaker tributes fighting to win the Games. They never intended for the Careers to do well in the Games.

The mutts that were used were vicious but stupid and could be outsmarted if you were smart enough to escape them. Many tributes tried to hide when they saw the mutts but they just weren't quick enough.

It was a flock of birds.

When Seeder first saw the flock, they were barely a pinprick in the distance but as they flew closer and closer at a remarkable speed, the pinprick grew bigger and bigger until eventually it was a full flock of carnivorous birds. They weren't flying directly at Seeder but she couldn't take the risk of them not noticing her.

But where could she go?

There were no trees and lying on the ground in the grass, as many tributes chose to do, would not hide her well enough. Then it came to her.

She could dig a hole.

Seeder wasn't the only tribute who had thought to dig a hole but no other tribute actually did it due to the sheer speed that the birds could fly at, there'd be no time to dig a hole by hand that was big enough to hide in. But there is a certain art to digging a hole, an art that Seeder had refined through all the years she had spent in District 11 planting vegetables.

So dig a hole she did and by the time the bird mutts flew over her all they could see was a brown patch of land. Had they been flying lower they would've seen two feet poking out from under the soil but luckily for Seeder, the birds didn't spot anything. But she may not be so lucky next time so Seeder would have to practise digging holes before the birds came back.

Over the next few days , the holes seemed to work as Seeder remained unseen by the birds. Other tributes were, of course, not as lucky as they were unable to find anywhere to hide or, in the Careers case, were wrong to think they could outrun the birds or fight them off.

The Gamemakers plan at letting the tributes use their brains had paid off, even if it had killed off a few more tributes than originally planned.

For now Seeder was safe inside her hole, only coming out occasionally for food and water but the problem she now faced was that the more tributes the birds killed the more they increased in number and the lower they seemed to fly. If they got any lower, they would definitely see her as whilst her holes were improving, you could see parts of her body sometimes. But so far she had remained undetected and somehow she managed to get down to the final two without encountering any other tribute.

The other remaining tribute was the boy from District 5 so it was just how the tributes had planned it. He was using something very similar to Seeder by camouflaging himself and it worked very well as he could stay like that the entire time. On the whole, the Gamemakers were very pleased but one thing they hadn't expected was that neither of the final two had actually killed anyone yet which was extremely unusual, the closest they'd come was the boy from District 5 breaking someone's nose trying to get away from the Cornucopia. But now they'd reached a stalemate as they were on opposite sides of the arena and neither actually had a weapon. So the Gamemakers decided to speed things up a bit.

During the bird free moments of the Games, when she wasn't gathering food or water, Seeder had been putting the finishing touches to her holes and this one was by far the best one she'd made. It was covered in branches and dirt but she'd put grass back on top to make it completely undetectable.

And it was just in time as the Gamemakers had just let out two identical flocks of birds to go for each tribute. Seeder clambered into the hole and waited with bated breath as the boy from District 5 reapplied bits of his camouflage. They were both going to get found, that much was obvious. But who would die first.

The birds found Seeder first. They pecked through the cover of her hole and completely ripped it to shreds and then several descended into the holes. One took a huge bite out of her ear making her scream and another went for the throat….

They disappeared. The gong had gone off. Seeder had won.

Despite the birds finding Seeder first, those precious minutes that they wasted biting through her defences saved Seeder's life. The boy from District 5 only had leaves so didn't last nearly as long.

Seeder became the victor of the 33rd Hunger Games without actually killing anyone. Her ear was easily fixed but apart from that, it was the only real injury she took from the Games. The Gamemakers were pleased that they had brought something new to the Games but unfortunately the President wasn't, This victor hadn't been traumatised which took away the whole point of the Games so the Head Gamemaker mysteriously resigned by the 34th Hunger Games. A new Head Gamemaker meant a new approach to the Games.


	34. 34th Hunger Games- Alexandrite

34th Hunger Games

Winner: Alexandrite District 1

The 34th Hunger Games was a typical Career dominated games but it had a twist as every single tribute would rely on sponsors heavily in this Games. Following the disappearance of the Head Gamemaker last year, a new one had to be found and quickly. As the 34th Hunger Games grew closer and closer, the Capitol became desperate and had no choice but to accept a woman as Head Gamemaker, something that had never been done before. The Capitol didn't believe in putting women in important positions of government, so this woman Juillet Marcial, better do a good job.

All in all, she did please some people as she pulled on the heartstrings of the Capitol but unfortunately she didn't please the people that mattered as the 34th Hunger Games was too different.

When the stylists and mentors received their tributes, it had been hinted to them that sponsors would be especially important to the tributes this year so all the stops had to be pulled out to make every tribute look appealing as possible. For once, every tribute did look excellent which was a first as usually at least one pair of tributes had an odd costume on. The mentors also tried particularly hard this year as normally, many wouldnt try in the hope they wouldnt get attatched.

So as a result of all this plus the training they did, certain tributes were shining, one of these was Alexandrite from District 1. He was everything a sponsor wanted to see: handsome, confident and strong. It was no surprise to anyone that he, along with the other Career tributes were getting more than their fair share of attention. It was nothing out of the ordinary but many of the other tributes felt angered by this which would lead up to some exciting action next year.

But what was all the fuss over sponsors about? Both the tributes and the Capitol viewers had realised something was different, maybe even wrong. The mentors and stylists knew a little more as they knew the tributes would need supplies of some sort but no one actually knew what the arena was and the Gamemakers were determined that it would not be revealed until the very last moment so the tributes clothing offered no hints to the stylists.

As a result of this, there was great anticipation to see this mysterious arena that would surely make this the most exciting Games so far…  
An island.  
A big desert island.

To be honest, the Capitol felt like the Gamemakers had let them down, to only produce an island after so much suspense. The tributes had everything they needed on the island already, they didn't need the sponsors help with anything.

And so the Games started and the slightly disgruntled Capitol soon forgot their anger in the excitement of the bloodbath. As usual the Careers led the way with Alexandrite using his sword to chop and hack at the tributes that had stayed behind in an attempt to fight. But the Careers were confident after receiving so much attention from the Capitol and were therefore unstoppable. After a while the smarter tributes fled the oncoming attack, whether they were good fighters or not.

So far it was turning out to be a pretty ordinary Games and for the first few days that was what the Gamemakers wanted people to think. Although no one realised it yet, the sponsors were still going to be as crucial as the Gamemakers made them out to be earlier; they were just giving the Capitol time to pick their favourites. Of course, the Careers were the most popular as they'd proved to be effective killers and Alexandrite was leading the way with this with his sword and shield. But there were some other tributes that caught the Capitols eyes as well. The two from District 3 had joined up together and looked like they could stay in it for a while as long as they weren't found. The girl from District 6 was also quite popular as she stole food and water from other tributes and then slit their throats for good measure meaning that she would be able to kill when the fights started breaking out. The Capitol were looking for tributes who could kill and survive. The Careers were notorious for being rubbish at surviving if the arena chose to fight back but as long as they stuck together, they would go unchallenged.

But then came the mist.

This was the Gamemakers master plan. The tropical island looked lovely and it had all the resources the tributes wanted but what if they couldn't see?

The Gamemakers wanted the tributes to use their other senses to see how smart they really were. But they knew that some would find this difficult and they didn't want the Games to come to a standstill which is why they put so much emphasis on the sponsors. So there were no mutts, no natural disasters and no food shortages. Just mist.

As soon as the mist appeared, sponsors began queuing up to send the tributes torches. But there was a problem. The torches were extremely expensive so only five tributes would be able to receive one. The sponsors would have to work together to try and figure something out.

Meanwhile, in the arena, the tributes were unsure of what to do about the mist. It was so thick they could barely see their own hands never mind anybody else. Most tributes decided to sit it out and see if it went away. After all, the mist offered an excellent hiding strategy to which many tributes could use to their advantage. In addition to this, the stronger tributes had had to give up hunting the others down for now so overall the mist was actually welcomed by many tributes…until the torches arrived.

The sponsors had decided to send two torches to the Careers, one to the District 3 tributes, one to the girl from District 6 and one to the boy from District 10 who was the next best fighter after the Careers. The Gamemakers hoped that these would be the remaining tributes in the end and therefore the rest of the tributes would be taken out of the competition. But this plan all went a bit pear-shaped as soon as the Careers got their torches.

The torches were the only lifeline to the tributes and they were made in such a way that only the holder could see the light. This meant that the other four Careers would have to follow the two District 1 tributes (the ones who'd grabbed the torches first), blindly into the night and they weren't very happy about this. Squabbles broke out and eventually the boy from District 2 snapped and shoved his sword into the girl from District 1's arm. A bloody battle ensued but Alexandrite ran away with his torch and decided he would rather be alone than with the surviving Careers. Luckily for him, three were only two surviving Careers in the District 2 tributes but their wounds were so severe that neither of them made it through the night due to blood loss.

Alexandrite was now the strongest tribute in the arena so he sought out the next strongest which was the boy from District 10. As they both had a torch it didn't take long for them to find each other and as the boy from District 10 was pretty confident, he didn't run but instead swung his axe towards Alexandrite. Alexandrite dodged it and they began to swing their weapons at each other, each doing damage but neither of them landing the direct hit. The boy from District 10 was stronger but Alexandrite was much quicker and eventually managed to land a direct hit in the heart, instantly killing his biggest opponent

After that it was simple. The tributes without torches were like sitting ducks, unable to offer any defence against something they couldn't even see. The ones with torches had taken to hiding but when Alexandrite did find them, they were useless with the few weapons they had so Alexandrite easily became the victor.

The Gamemakers were pleased but the Capitol officials weren't. The Games had been too dependant on the sponsors and no one without a torch had really stood a chance. The Head Gamemaker, Juillet Marcial promptly resigned and was never spoken of again. This was also a bad Hunger Games for the tributes who weren't Careers as they had seen first hand how the Capitol put the Careers first every single time. They would need to do something about this.


End file.
